Danny Trejo’s noticeable scars were not the result of a bike accident. The 77-year-old Mexican-American actor and restaurateur, who has been in over 300 films and television episodes, including “Blood In, Blood Out,” “Con Air,” “Spy Kids,” and “Machete,” understands what it’s like to be the criminal he frequently portrays.Trejo, who was born in Los Angeles in 1944, had more adversity than almost any of his characters.
He participated in street life and violence, consumed and sold heavy narcotics, fought fist and gun battles with competing gangs, served time in multiple jails, and even sat on death row before being released on a technicality. Following that, he straightened out, got lucky, and scored a Hollywood role in the 1980s, and he has never looked back.
However, getting there was not easy, and things haven’t been completely smooth since. These are Danny Trejo’s horrible details.Danny Trejo, like many others, had an abusive background. According to the documentary “Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo,” the actor who starred in “Machete” and “Breaking Bad” was severely abused as a child by his father and grandparents. This made him more attached to his Uncle Gilbert, who at least showed him some love and affection.
Unfortunately, Trejo’s uncle was not a positive role model when he was growing up. He was introduced to opioids and grew addicted to them with the assistance of his uncle. And this extends beyond the occasional use of marijuana and LSD. He began smoking marijuana at the age of eight, and by the age of thirteen, he had become a full-fledged heroin addict. Trejo was also introduced to crime by Uncle Gilbert.
He addressed an audience, “I remember giving my uncle a ride in my mom’s car…” He would say, “Stop here, and I’ll get some cigarettes.” ‘Go, go, go!’ he says as he exits. I’d yell, “You motherf*! I’m in my mother’s car right now. He could rob a liquor store for $80 if he had $5,000 in his pocket. Gilbert also turned Trejo into a fighter by brutally hitting him and forcing him to remain standing, or, as Trejo put it, “get my head beat in.” Even as a teenager, Trejo had a depressingly close and knowledgeable acquaintance with crime and street life.
If you feel you or someone you know has been abused, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or use their live chat services. Trejo fought a lot. According to Grantland, Uncle Gilbert educated Trejo to be tough by frequently ambushing the boy, forcing him to keep his guard up and learn to defend himself unless he wanted a split lip. Later, Trejo admitted, “I was basically his punching bag.”
Despite how rigorous the training was, it prepared Trejo for a life of crime and imprisonment (and, later, a career in acting). It also helped him prepare for life in his Los Angeles neighborhood, where competing street gangs fought vicious turf conflicts in areas like Mission Park. Trejo learned there that, while everyone is tough, not everyone is scary. “People ain’t afraid of tough guys,” he said. “People are terrified of crazy men.”
During this period, Trejo sparred with renowned kickboxer Benny “the Jet” Urquidez. He explained, “Danny never gave in. He was an expert. He had a robust jaw and a large heart.” In an interview with Tony Gonzalez, Trejo describes the relentless physical demands and strains of growing up in Los Angeles’ Echo Park, which he refers to as “basically a ghetto.”
“It was problematic,” he claims. “We were from Echo Park (EP) and had frequent conflicts with the Temple Street gang. The environment was always chaotic. We had to keep people out of our neighborhood since there were fights on the way to school and home.”
Danny Trejo’s lifestyle of drug use, peddling, street fighting, and general criminal activities left him with just two options: death or prison. Fortunately, it was the latter, albeit he was initially unaware of his good fortune.
According to Texas Monthly, Trejo served 11 years in several southwest jails. In 1962, he received a brief jail sentence for robbery and drug trafficking. He was promptly released, but by 1965, he was back in prison—this time for good—for selling four ounces of heroin (he maintains it was sugar, according to the account) to a federal agent posing as a drug addict.
The challenging experience would eventually shape him into the man he is today, but it was not an overnight transition. He remained a strong criminal who was difficult to intimidate. However, things were about to change. In 1968, he was transferred from Soledad to San Quentin Prison, which was known for its execution rooms. According to the narrative, Trejo’s cheerful demeanor shifted as the talk drifted to the first time he viewed the location up close.
When approaching San Quentin, you’ll see two lights over the North Block. There are two lights visible: one red and one green. When the red light comes on, someone gets slain. People enter this facility and do not depart, which is the first thing you notice, indicating that it is a death house. Perhaps Danny Trejo doesn’t resemble Brad Pitt. He hasn’t had many problems over the years, attracting ladies thanks to his reputation as a multimillionaire Hollywood bad boy with a kind heart.
Being a good husband and appealing to women demand quite different skill sets. HITC contains information about Trejo’s previous relationships, including who of his five children was fathered by whom. Danielle and Gilbert were the offspring of his 1997-2009 (extremely long for Hollywood) marriage to fellow actor Debbie Shreve, who appeared in “High Hopes” and “Tennis, Anyone?” Aside from the fact that one of the females was named Maeve, there is little publicly available information about Danny Boy, Esmeralda, and Jose’s other ex-lovers.
Survivor Net says that in 2010, Danny Trejo was diagnosed with dangerous liver cancer. Despite his early years of hard living and age, he wasn’t expecting any diagnosis, claiming to have tried to stay healthy over the years. He told The Sun, “You know cancer doesn’t discriminate. You can be healthy, but it’ll still get to you … I had a 10 centimetre tumour in my liver and they said it was too big to start chemo.”
It’s hard enough getting a diagnosis like that. It’s another thing to have to keep the news to yourself and your immediate circle. Trejo told the publication that he was reluctant to go public with the disease because he’d just signed onto some lucrative movie deals. “The bad part was I had about six contracts already signed and I was making major money. And so I couldn’t tell anybody that I had cancer. I always say I had just suffered in silence.” But Trejo also said he didn’t allow himself to wallow in self pity. “At first I thought ‘God why me?'” He said. “Then the thought hit me, ‘B***h how would you like to be 12 years old and have cancer?’
Luckily, the chapter is well behind him. He continued, “So they gave me injections right into the tumour, three times, seven needles and boom. So anyway, the third time, after about six months, I came back and they said, ‘You’re cancer free.'”