Danny Trejo's rise to fame had quite a few twists and turns along the way.
Years before he took up acting, he was actually a violent criminal who'd spent time in multiple
prisons.
So how was he able to turn his life around so drastically?
Long before showing up in a Snickers commercial as Marcia Brady, Danny Trejo was on the streets
of Los Angeles, getting started in the criminal business when he was just a kid.
He recalls that he was only 12 when he was first tossed into juvenile, for the crime
of hitting another kid with a rock.
Things only escalated from there, largely thanks to his Uncle Gilbert, who would rob
stores and have his nephew Danny act as the getaway driver.
He would go on to commit at least five armed robberies before he was busted for selling
a four-ounce bag of heroin worth $30,000.
As a result, the 23-year-old Trejo was sentenced to ten years and shipped off to San Quentin
where he quickly became one of the baddest dudes behind bars.
After Trejo arrived in San Quentin, he quickly made a name for himself by donning a pair
of boxing gloves and knocking bums out.
He claims that prison boxing, quote, "literally made [him] a celebrity," and that he was both
the lightweight and welterweight champ in three separate prisons.
And he was just as scary outside the ring.
As the head of a small gang, he made quite a bit of cash by intimidating weaker inmates,
forcing them to fork over protection money.
Naturally, most people agreed to pay up, because who's going to say no to Danny Trejo?
It was also behind bars that Trejo picked up his infamous tattoo.
If you've ever seen the man shirtless, you've probably noticed the sombrero-wearing, cleavage-baring
cowgirl scrawled across his chest.
So how did Danny Trejo go from terrifying thug to beloved public figure?
His transformation began on Cinco de Mayo 1968 when he decided to riot.
It all started after some of the Mexican inmates got a bit inebriated, and soon, the prison
had erupted into madness.
In the chaos, Trejo hit a prison official in the head with a rock, a crime that got
him tossed into solitary confinement.
Trejo spent over three months in solitary, acting out movies like The Wizard of Oz and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame to keep sane.
Realizing he needed to get his life straightened out, he started to pray, saying,
"God if you're there, everything will be alright, if you're not, I'm screwed."
Miraculously, the charges against him were dropped, and he slowly but surely began to
rehabilitate himself.
Trejo also turned his life around by knuckling down and getting sober.
He started using marijuana at age eight and shooting heroin at age 12, and he also consumed
a whole lot of alcohol in his early days.
Determined to set things right, he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous,
and today, he has been sober for nearly 50 years.
And after he was released from prison, he decided to lend a hand to his fellow man,
working as a drug counselor for 15 years.
Today, he is still counseling people and speaking to at-risk youth.
Trejo kept himself pretty busy after leaving prison in 1969, working as both a drug counselor
and court liaison.
But he was forced to do all sorts of things to pay the bills.
He tried becoming a boxer, but when his license was denied, he picked up some pocket change
by throwing down in "smokers," aka unsanctioned matches.
He also earned a living by working at a wrecking yard before teaming up with a friend to start
his very own enterprise.
The two opened a gardening business, but while they had plenty of get-up-and-go, they didn't
have all the necessary equipment.
They didn't even have a lawnmower.
However, Trejo's tough times were soon all about to change.
In 1985, Trejo was working as a drug counselor when he got a call from a client who desperately
needed help.
This guy was working on the set of Runaway Train, a prison thriller starring Jon Voight
and Eric Roberts, and he was struggling with an urge to use cocaine.
Trejo showed up on the set to give the guy some assistance, but it wasn't long before
someone approached Trejo and asked if he'd like to be an extra in the movie.
He took the job, but as he was changing into his outfit, screenwriter Eddie Bunker spotted
his chest tattoo.
Bunker had also served time, and when he saw the cowgirl ink, he remembered Trejo's boxing
behind bars.
It was an amazing coincidence, especially since the filmmakers were looking for someone
to teach Eric Roberts how to fight.
“I said, what’s it pay?
And he said, $320 a day.”
Trejo gave the actor a few pointers, which so impressed the director that he offered
Trejo a much bigger part as the guy who squares off against Roberts on-screen.
“And then I remember he kissed me.
He kissed me on this cheek and a kiss on..
Andrei Konchalovsky, a Russian”
“And I remember telling Eddie Bunker, I said ‘Eddie, look, I’m gonna do this training
for $320 but if I’m gonna be kissing this old man I want more money.”
It was Trejo's first role, the one that kickstarted his entire acting career, and it was all thanks
to that wild tattoo.
Ever since Runaway Train, Trejo has been keeping himself pretty busy.
Visit his IMDb page, and you'll find he's got over 300 credits in his filmography.
During his 30 plus years of acting, he's starred alongside some of the biggest action stars
in the business, like Charles Bronson, Steven Seagal, and Chuck Norris.
Trejo has also appeared in some of the biggest thrillers of all time.
He played "Johnny 23" in Con Air, a movie he once described as "the biggest case of
testosterone I've ever been in."
He also showed up in the Michael Mann classic Heat as the appropriately named Trejo, a member
of Robert De Niro's criminal crew.
Other notable credits include xXx, Six Days, Seven Nights, Anaconda, and The Devil's Rejects.
Plus, if you've ever turned on a TV, you've no doubt seen Trejo in shows like The X-Files,
Baywatch, Sons of Anarchy, Breaking Bad, and even the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
In addition to action flicks, he's also done kid movies like Muppets Most Wanted and comedies
like Anchorman.
"You're gonna have to learn how to deal with that."
"What?
Were you saying something?
Look, I don't speak Spanish"
Cinema is full of fantastic actor-director collaborations, and Danny Trejo and Robert
Rodriguez deserve to be considered among the most legendary pairs.
The two first met while working on Desperado, where Rodriguez was struck by Trejo's "natural
magnetism."
Strangely enough, while working on the film they discovered that they are actually second
cousins.
"Where do these ideas, crazy ideas come from?
And what line- It's all him, right?"
After their first film, the two quickly formed a personal and professional bond that would
lead to nine movies, including Spy Kids and From Dusk Till Dawn.
But it's safe to say the two are best known for working on Machete, the 2010 exploitation
flick that definitively made Danny Trejo a household name.
Rodriguez was inspired to make this nutso B-picture from pretty much the first moment
he laid eyes on Trejo.
He envisioned his star as the, quote, "Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson,"
and thus he transformed into the machete-wielding vigilante we now know and love.
"You could've at least texted me"
"Machete don't text"
Once you've become the toughest star in Hollywood, where do you go next?
If you're Trejo, you go into the restaurant business.
With the help of two partners, the action star recently founded his own culinary kingdom,
with locations across Los Angeles.
If you're in the mood for Mexican cuisine, you can stop by Trejo's Tacos.
If you want coffee and churros, you can drop in to Trejo's Coffee & Donuts.
And if you fancy a proper drink with your meal, you can swing by Trejo's Cantinas.
Trejo's restaurants have vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.
And the actor makes sure that nothing goes to waste, with all leftovers taken to a homeless
shelter.
Trejo's food is so good that it was featured on Anthony Bourdain's show, Parts Unknown,
and the late, great chef had nothing but praise for the Mexican cuisine.
If you live outside California, you might have to wait a bit before you can buy yourself
a "Lowrider" donut, but the actor has plans to open locations in San Antonio, Las Vegas,
and New York.
Everybody knows that under his intimidating exterior, Danny Trejo is a big ol' softie.
He's a dad, a drug counselor, a dude who gives food to the homeless, and naturally, he's
also a big-time dog lover.
In fact, he's such a fan of our four-legged friends that he's dedicated countless hours
to making the world a safer place for pets.
With his ex-wife Debbie, Trejo founded a group called K9 Compassion, a rescue organization
that emphasizes the importance of spaying and neutering.
The actor has worked with various groups like Best Friends Animal Society and the Villalobos
Rescue Center, he's spoken with high school students about proper pet care, and he's appeared
in ads for animal foundations.
And like any dedicated dog lover, Trejo believes in adoption.
As of 2016, had four cute canines of his own.
Even though Trejo is one macho man, he has his limits when it comes to screen action.
In fact, he's very opinionated when it comes to the topic of stunt work.
After Tom Cruise injured himself filming Mission: Impossible, Fallout, Trejo told Yahoo!
Movies,
"I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don't want to risk 80 peoples'
jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show."
According to Trejo, it's irresponsible for a leading man or woman to jeopardize a film
shoot in order to crawl up buildings or hold onto the side of planes.
If the lead gets injured, that might ruin the entire film, and then everybody loses
a paycheck.
Danny Trejo might seem like a scary guy on the big screen, but in reality, he has a heart
of gold.
Knowing full well that he packs some serious celebrity clout, he does his best to make
a difference wherever he goes.
That means working as a drug intervention counselor, fighting for autism awareness,
and appearing in PSAs to promote good manners on the L.A. Metro and to support male caregivers.
Trejo is also incredibly serious about prison reform, going so far as to produce a 2018
documentary called Survivor's Guide to Prison.
Trejo also appears in the film to analyze the problems with the U.S. legal system, talk
about the abuse that goes on behind bars, and discuss the cases of two men who were
wrongly convicted and incarcerated.
As a guy who's been on the inside, he knows a thing or two about how cruel prison can
be, and how authority figures are often indifferent to the inmates struggling to survive.
Danny Trejo is a man who likes to keep busy.
And he does a whole lot more than just appear on the silver screen.
For example, he's provided voices for multiple video games.
He also recently promoted the online shooter Guns of Boom.
Trejo's also been a notable star of music videos.
He goes full-on Psycho in Slayer's "Pride in Prejudice," and throws back some shots
in Enrique Iglesias' "Loco."
He gets pushed around by the Jonas Brothers in "Burnin' Up and gives off serious Machete
vibes in Train's "Angel in Blue Jeans."
In other words, you don't have to look very far to find Danny Trejo...because he's pretty
much everywhere.