From cameos to grindhouse leads, Danny Trejo is one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood.
However, his life story and personal factoids also make him one of the most interesting
actors to ever grace our screens. That being said, let's explore some of his untold truths.
Danny Trejo has a pretty incredible rags-to-riches story. According to Grantland, the future
action star grew up in the "rough" neighborhood of Pacoima in Los Angeles. Though he was raised
by his parents, his most significant influence came from his uncle, Gilbert, who was six
years older than him. He became his, quote, "mentor" of crime, teaching him the ins and
outs of burglary, while also introducing him to drugs and alcohol. He was eight when he
tried marijauana for the first time, and twelve when he first experienced heroin.
Trejo said during an interview on "Wide Open with Tony Gonzalez":
"It was basically a ghetto."
Ironically enough, although Gilbert was an awful influence on the young boy, he also
taught him how to survive — something that would come in handy during Trejo's countless
stints in prisons across California. At thirteen, Gilbert began using Trejo as, quote, "his
punching bag," and as the star told Grantland:
"I had to learn to fight, or get my head beat in."
Thanks to Trejo's upbringing, he was only 12 or 13 years old when he landed in juvenile
hall for the first time. Noting that he kept landing in the slammer for, quote, "everything,"
be it common law robbery or assault, Trejo explained that it was merely "the way of life."
As HuffPost details, from here, Trejo transitioned into more serious crimes, such as "robbing
liquor stores with live grenades" and getting involved in "shootouts." Of course, spending
time with his uncle Gilbert didn't exactly help the situation. Trejo recalled on TheLipTV:
"He was like the cool one. He was the one that always had the big wad of cash."
According to Trejo, Gilbert also thankfully, quote, "taught me everything" that would come
in handy in prison — and Trejo definitely had the chance to sharpen his skills. The
actor said in an interview with Tony Gonzalez:
"I've been in every prison in the state of California."
In fact, according to Texas Monthly, Trejo was "in and out" of prisons "for more than
half of his life" by the time the late '60s rolled around.
Probably one of the most important things Trejo learned from his uncle Gilbert was how
to fight. According to Grantland, the "Machete" star even grew up learning how to spar alongside
Benny "The Jet" Urquidez — a future world champion kickboxer. As Urquidez recalled to
the outlet:
"Danny never backed down. He was a natural. He had a big heart, and a strong jaw."
Sure enough, that strong jaw survived countless brawls in the California prison system. Trejo
told TMZ Sports:
"I was lightweight and welterweight champion in every penitentiary I was in, and I was
in all of them."
He got a bit more personal on "Wide Open with Tony Gonzalez," explaining further:
"That was my goal. That's as far as it went."
After spending time in many of California's jails in the 1960s, what happened next for
Trejo would change everything. As he explained to The Guardian, the actor took part in the
1968 Cinco de Mayo riots at San Quentin State Prison — one of the most dangerous penitentiaries
in the world.
After the riot ended, he was transferred to Soledad Prison and placed in solitary confinement.
He said in the interview:
"They said I threw a rock and hit [a] lieutenant in the head."
He did admit to throwing a rock, but according to him, he was aiming at someone else. He
After getting out of "the hole," Trejo began going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in
prison, eventually completing the program. He told LA Weekly:
"Without AA and NA I wouldn't be here. Just like without God I wouldn't be here."
After making parole, he found work as a drug counselor at Western Pacific Rehab — which
snowballed into an opportunity that Trejo himself didn't even expect.
As the actor recalled to The Guardian, in 1985, one of his clients phoned him in distress,
explaining they needed Trejo to come to their place of work due to a large amount of cocaine
being passed around. After giving Trejo an address in the "warehouse district," he recalled
thinking to himself:
"[We'll] sit out in his car at break, smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and afterwards he
would go back inside."
However, when Trejo arrived, he found out he was on a film set for Andrei Konchalovsky's
"Runaway Train."
What happened next was sheer luck: Trejo was asked if he could, quote, "act like a convict,"
and once the future star took his shirt off, the screenwriter recognized his iconic tattoos.
As it turned out, both men spent time in San Quentin State Prison. Because of their connection,
Trejo found himself hired "to train [actor] Eric Roberts how to box." As the action star
told The Guardian:
"I'd rather be paid to be the bad guy."
All in all, he was paid $320 a day.
Despite the narrative of his early life, Trejo has managed to stay sober ever since his epiphany
in prison. As he explains in his documentary "Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo":
"I made a promise to myself to start trying to do good."
As he told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Everybody asks me, 'How do you stay so young?' I consider myself 48 years old. That's when
my life started."
According to Variety, in May 2021, Trejo was honored by the drug and alcohol treatment
center CRI-Help in Los Angeles, having been "sober for nearly 53 years." He told the outlet
that his life has been, quote, "like a dream" since getting sober and getting out of jail.
He emphasized:
"I've got nothing to complain about. I've got nothing to fix."
"And since I'm a Mexi-can, I can do whatever I want."
Not only has Trejo created a much better life for himself since his release from prison,
but he's also made it his life mission to help other people and pay things forward.
He told LMT Online:
"Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone
else."
And there's no doubt that it's exactly what Trejo has been doing. The actor has taken
part in the documentary "Survivor's Guide to Prison", revisiting the same jails where
he was once incarcerated to talk about the dangers of crime life to those currently serving
time.
Most importantly, however, he's dedicated his spare time to working as a drug counselor
for at-risk teens. As he revealed to The Guardian:
"Even now, kids come up and say: 'Trejo, what's up? You helped me years ago.' So that's been
a blessing."
As if his work mentoring convicts and kids with substance abuse problems isn't enough,
Trejo goes out of his way to help random people whenever the chance arises.
According to The Washington Post, Trejo was driving in Los Angeles when he witnessed a
car accident, resulting in an overturned SUV. There were three people in the vehicle — a
woman, a special needs child, and the woman's mother. As he ran to help the woman — who
was stuck behind the driver's door — he then realized the woman's mother and her son
were unable to escape the backseat. According to Trejo, the boy was panicking, and as he
smelled gasoline, the action star knew he had to act fast. With the help of another
bystander, he was able to get the boy out of the vehicle. Then, he did his best to distract
him from the mayhem while newly-arrived firemen worked to free the grandmother.
"I'm holding him like this, and I started talking about, 'Wait a minute, we have to
use our superpowers!' And so he goes: 'Superpowers!'
Who knows how the scenario would have played out if Trejo and the other bystander had not
been there to help.
Despite his real-life kindness, Danny Trejo is notorious for playing intimidating bad
guys on the big screen. In his documentary "Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo," Trejo
says that for the first five years of his career, he was merely playing bit parts as,
quote, "inmate number one," "cholo number one," and "ese number one." Regardless, his
star power only grew, and he became much more recognizable as time went on.
It helps that Trejo has some pretty distinguishable tattoos, too — especially his chest piece.
In fact, as he told Prison Legal News:
"International Tattoo Magazine says it's the most recognizable tattoo in the world."
In 2014, he gave a bit more insight about his piece while on The Howard Stern Show,
telling the shock jock that he got the, quote, "Mexican lady with a sombrero" done by Harry
"Super Jew" Ross while in prison. In a truly crazy tattoo origin story, Ross did Trejo's
tattoo over time in three different jails, having followed the future actor whenever
he got transferred to another prison.
Although Ross would go on to become exceptionally famous in the tattoo community, Trejo's piece
was his first — and he wasn't exactly a fan of his own work. As Trejo quipped to Showbiz
CheatSheet:
"He would be like, 'Don't show that!' But I was like, 'Just shut up. This tattoo made
you famous!'"
Danny Trejo has seriously been in a lot of movies. As of the making of this video, the
actor has over 400 credits to his name — and he's showing no signs of slowing down. So,
out of all of those roles, does he have a favorite? He told Prison Legal News:
"Probably 'Machete."
The eponymous character of the Robert Rodriguez flick actually has an origin story from another
one of the director's movies: "Spy Kids." Per MTV, Machete was the uncle of the two
lead kids, always helping to "save the day." Yet it was a fake trailer for Rodriguez and
Quentin Tarantino's "Grindhouse" double-feature that really catapulted the suddenly-violent
character into the mainstream. With the audience reception of the bogus trailer being so positive,
Rodriguez eventually gave Machete his own movie in 2010.
Although they've worked together on a number of different films, it turns out that Rodriguez
and Trejo aren't just buddies; they're family, too, as Rodriguez is Trejo's second cousin.
Trejo told MTV:
"I didn't realize it until we were on the set of 'Desperado.' My family came down in
Texas to visit me on the set, and we found out we were second cousins. I was like, 'All
right, cuz.'"
Trejo truly loves kids. Along with his work counseling at-risk teens, he's also got five
of his own children: Gilbert, Danielle, Esmeralda, Danny Boy, and Jose. He told Variety:
"My kids are my greatest accomplishment. I just adore them."
Ultimately, his kids are what keep him motivated to stay in Hollywood. As he told Texas Monthly,
he views acting as, quote, "just a job" — one that helps him provide for his kids. And it
looks like the acting bug has caught on with his offspring, too. According to the outlet,
Gilbert directed his father in 2020's "From a Son," a tale of a father searching for his
drug-addicted boy. Unfortunately, the story hits uncomfortably close to home, as Gilbert
himself suffered through his own real-life substance abuse problems. Commenting on his
role in the film, Trejo said:
"It's the biggest thing I've ever done."
Overall, it seems that family life suits Trejo — a far cry from his chaotic and crime-filled
past. When Grantland's Amos Barshad went to visit the star for an interview, he described
Trejo's neighborhood as, quote, "quiet" and "unassuming," while his home was a "modest
California ranch."
Besides acting and his family, Trejo's other passion is food. Publishing his cookbook,
"Trejo's Tacos: Recipes and Stories from L.A.," in 2020, the actor told the Hallmark Channel
that it was his mother who inspired him to pursue a culinary side-hustle. He said:
"My mom [was an] amazing cook."
In addition to this inspiration, he explained that he wanted to try a new spin on Mexican
food in an effort to help people eat healthier:
"The Latino community has admitted that we have a problem with obesity."
After publishing his cookbook, he took his love for food a step further by opening up
his first restaurant, Trejo's Tacos, in 2016 — which has now grown into a franchise of
nine restaurants. This was followed by Trejo's Coffee & Donuts, a bright-pink bakery with
Trejo's signature scowling mug as its logo. As Trejo told "Wide Open with Tony Gonzalez,"
he even has a locale at an airport, which he jokingly says, quote, "kind of makes you legit."
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