Thommy Chong

Thomas Chong B. Kin is an Edmonton actor and musician who is well-known for his stereotypical portrayals of hippie-era stoners. He is most widely known for his role as Chong in the marijuana-themed Cheech and Chong comedy movies with Cheech Marin.

By age eleven Chong was playing guitar, chiefly country-and-western music. Soon, he was introduced to rhythm and blues, became a professional musician, and quit school. He formed one of Western Canada's earliest rhythm and blues bands, the Shades, but was eventually requested by the police to leave town after a particularly rowdy gig, according to his account. Chong and the Shades then left for the closest metropolis, Vancouver, where Chong bought a club, the Elegant Parlour, and played guitar and sang in the house band, a Motown band named Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, briefly featuring a very young Jimi Hendrix [2]. Among his compositions for the group were "Does Your Mama Know About Me", which hit #29 on the United States pop chart and #5 on the US R&B chart.

In the late 1980s, Chong became a naturalized citizen of the United States.