Monday, January 08, 2007

Canadian of the Week; Jan. 8, 2007

Back from my holiday posting break, here comes the first Canadian of the New Year. This week's Canadian was born, May 24, 1938 in Edmonton Alberta. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a mother of Scot-Irish. His family moved to Calgary, Alberta so his father can get treatment at a Veteran's hospital for wounds he suffered during World War II. When he was eleven years old he learned how to play guitar. First playing country-and-western music, but soon switched to Rhythm and Blues. He soon quit school and formed a band called the Shades. According to him, "After a particularly rowdy gig" the band was asked by the Mayor to leave Calgary. He moved to Vancouver where he bought a club called the Elegant Parlour. He played guitar and sang for the house band. The band, Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers were discovered and signed by Motown. The band briefly featured a very young Jimi Hendrix. One of the songs he composed "Does your Mama know about me?" reached 29th on the U.S. pop chart and number 5 on the U.S. R&B chart.


After getting fired from the band, he moved back to Vancouver and started an improv group. While doing improv he met a comedian from Los Angeles who would become his long time partner. They became successful with many comedy albums, that turned into a movie career. In 1985 the team split up, because of artistic differences. Going their separate ways our Canadian had a recurring role on "that 70's show".

In 2003 he was arrested and charged with selling drug paraphernalia. He agreed to plea guilty in exchange with non-prosecution of his wife and son. After spending nine months in jail, he returned to acting on TV and also stared in a Documentary based on his arrest.

Our Canadian, this week is Tommy Chong.

1 Comments:

At 10:16 AM, Blogger DCSportsChick said...

Aw, you should have gone with Tommy's mugshot.

 

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