Danny Trejo — Movies, TV Shows & Roles

Actor

1944-05-16 · Echo Park, Los Angeles, California, USA · Male

67 series in the catalog

Danny Trejo (; Spanish: [ˈtɾexo]; born May 16, 1944) is an American actor. In his body of work he appears as a character actor taking on roles such as inmates, gangsters, or other criminals.
A native of Los Angeles, Trejo's film career began in 1985, when he landed a role in Runaway Train (1985). The first film in which he was given a credited role was as Art Sanella in Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987). He took roles in Desperado, Heat (both 1995), From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Con Air (1997), The Replacement Killers (1998), and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003).
From 2001 to 2003, Trejo appeared in the Robert Rodriguez-directed Spy Kids franchise as Isador "Machete" Cortez. Trejo reprised his role as Machete in Machete (2010), and its sequel Machete Kills (2013). He has voiced roles in the films The Book of Life (2014), Storks (2016), Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) and Zootopia 2 (2025) as well as in video games including the Call of Duty series from 2010 to 2021. He is known for his frequent collaborations with his cousin Robert Rodriguez on ten films since 1995 and violinist Bruce Dukov on eight films and tv series from Reindeer Games (2000) to Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022). He also worked with co-stars such as Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Quentin Tarantino, Ice Cube, Rob Zombie and Andy Samberg.
Childhood
Danny Trejo was born on May 16, 1944, in Maywood, California. He was raised on Temple Street in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, the son of Mexican-American parents. He is the son of Delores Rivera King and Dionisio "Dan" Trejo (1922–1981), a construction worker. Trejo was the result of an extramarital affair; Delores's husband was away fighting in World War II. His parents met at a dance hall in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1943. He had a maternal half-sister, Dyhan, but saw neither her nor Delores from 1949 until 1965; his father banned his mother from seeing him after Trejo sprained his arm in her care.
Trejo was often abused by his father. Shortly after his birth, Trejo and his family briefly lived in San Antonio, Texas; they fled Los Angeles because Dionisio was wanted by police for stabbing another man. After a year, they returned to Los Angeles and Trejo's father turned himself in. By 1949, Trejo shared a room with his cousins at their grandmother's house. His stepmother was Alice Mendias, "his only source of comfort" when he lived with his father.
Trejo was using marijuana, heroin, and cocaine by ages 8, 12, and 18, respectively. Trejo's uncle Gilbert introduced him to all three and was responsible for Trejo overdosing on his first heroin fix. When he was 13, he moved to the majority Hispanic neighborhood of Pacoima, Los Angeles, where he said he did not experience racism growing up. Years later, he purchased his childhood home and often lived in it.
Life of crime and incarceration
At age seven, Trejo participated in his first drug deal. He was first arrested at the age of 10, but experienced his first incarceration at Eastlake Juvenile Hall in 1956.
Throughout the 1960s, Trejo's life consisted predominantly of intermittent jail stints in the California prison system. The accounts of his prison chronology, though, are notably conflicting; by one account, his final term in custody is said to have ended in 1972. However, Trejo did time in various juvenile offenders' camps, including three years at Camp Glenn Rockey, San Dimas, for maiming a sailor (stabbing him in the face with broken glass), followed by numerous California prisons between 1959 and 1969; "I was in San Quentin, Folsom, Soledad, Vacaville, Susanville, Sierra".
While doing a stint in Los Angeles County jail in 1961, he met Charles Manson, whom he described as a "dirty, greasy, scrawny white boy" who was allegedly a talented hypnotist.
Trejo arrived at San Quentin State Prison in 1966, and his heroin use worsened shortly thereafter. He was a debt collector and drug dealer, often participating in or witnessing acts of serious violence, including murder. Simultaneously while imprisoned, Trejo focused on boxing and became a champion in San Quentin's lightweight and welterweight divisions.
Regarding himself, Trejo has suggested his physical appearance contributed to his constantly getting into trouble. In 1968, a prison riot broke out during Cinco de Mayo at Soledad. From that fracas, Trejo ended up in solitary confinement, facing capital charges and, potentially, the death penalty, after hitting a guard with a rock. While in solitary, Trejo found faith and became a member of a 12-step program, having first attended one "by accident" aged 15. He successfully overcame his drug addictions, recalling in 2011 that he had been sober for the previous 42 years. Also while incarcerated, he earned his high-school diploma.
Trejo was released from prison in 1969, and has remained sober since his release.
Prior to his film career, Trejo worked as a labor foreman for developer Saul Pick, and contributed toward the construction of the Cinerama Dome. He was also a gardener, salesperson, part owner of a lawn care company, and has been a substance abuse counselor since 1973.
Acting career
1985–1999: Acting debut and early work
Trejo worked with Western Pacific Med Corp in the 1980s, assisting them with establishing and operation of sober living houses within the San Fernando Valley. He met a "good looking tattooed kid" during a meeting in one such house, who explained that he worked as a film extra and was paid $50 per day to stand there. Intrigued, Trejo considered becoming a film extra, initially due to the easy money and publicity it could afford his work with Western Pacific Med Corp. Trejo signed with an agent and would hand out his details while working on film sets, in the hopes of finding more opportunities to help those in need. Late one night, Trejo received a call from a teenaged patient, asking for his assistance in dealing with cocaine problems on the set of Runaway Train (1985).
While there, Trejo was offered a job as an extra in the film's prison scenes. Edward Bunker, a former convict turned published crime author who was writing the screenplay for the film, recognized Trejo from their time together at San Quentin. Remembering Trejo's boxing skills, Bunker played a pivotal role in securing Trejo as Eric Roberts' personal trainer and boxing advisor. Trejo was paid between $320 and $350 per day. Trejo recalled: "When I got my first paycheck, I thought they made a mistake!" Bunker also convinced director Andrei Konchalovsky to offer Trejo a small acting role, asserting that Trejo's personal experiences of incarceration would provide authenticity to the prison drama. Following his acting debut, Trejo was oblivious to being typecast as a prisoner in similar roles for years to follow; "I [did not] know I was being stereotyped. I just knew I was working."
Penitentiary III was his first billed role. While filming he met Anthony Gambino of the Gambino crime family; Gambino allegedly had financial interests invested and was there to meet the leading man, Leon Isaac Kennedy. Trejo was paid $120 cash each day, but the project often went into overtime; "We were stacked with cash." On a good month, Trejo was taking home as much as $700 by 1989 from being an extra alone; yet, people often assumed he was far wealthier after a few appearances on television. Trejo says this worked to his advantage as a drug counselor, though, because clients would recognize him as an actor, therefore appreciating his presence and the humility of his work all the more. Trejo had made a dozen films by 1990, including Death Wish 4: The Crackdown, and Marked for Death. He enjoyed the making of Guns, yet alleges Erik Estrada took issue with the cast and crew being more familiar with Trejo than himself. Trejo says Estrada's ego got the better of him; he believes Estrada arranged for Trejo and a number of others to fly coach instead of first class on the way to…