Danny Trejo Wiki – Biography
Danny Trejo is an American actor and voice actor who has appeared in numerous Hollywood films. His films include Heat (1995), Con Air (1997), and Desperado (1995), the last with frequent collaborator and his cousin Robert Rodriguez. Trejo is perhaps most recognized as the character Machete, originally developed by Rodriguez for the Spy Kids series of movies and later expanded into Trejo’s own series of films aimed at a more adult audience. He has appeared in TV shows such as Breaking Bad, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The X-Files, King of the Hill, The Flash, and Sons of Anarchy. He has also appeared in several music videos for the American band Slayer.
When he was 13 he moved to the diverse Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, and recalls never really experiencing racism while growing up. Years later he purchased his childhood home and usually lived in it. Prior to his film career, Trejo worked as a labor foreman in construction.
Throughout the ’60s, Trejo was in and out of jail and prison in California; Trejo has suggested that his physical appearance contributed to his constantly getting into trouble. There are conflicting accounts of his prison chronology. By one account, his final term in custody ended in 1972; by another account, he did time in a juvenile offenders’ camp and six California prisons between 1959 and 1969. He recalled that his last prison term was five years.
While serving in San Quentin, he became a champion boxer in that prison’s lightweight and welterweight divisions. During this time, Trejo became a member of a 12-step program, which he credits with his success in overcoming drug addiction. In 2011, he recalled that he had been sober for 42 years.
Trejo owns several ventures in the food and restaurant business. As of January 2016 these included a taco restaurant on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles, his own brands of beer, coffee, and various merchandise, with ice cream sandwiches under development. Trejo’s Donuts is located on the northeast corner of Santa Monica Blvd and Highland Avenue.
In August 2019, Trejo witnessed a car colliding at an intersection with an SUV and helped extract a five-year-old trapped in a child safety seat inside the overturned SUV. Trejo was quoted saying about the incident: “Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything.
Danny Trejo Age
Danny Trejo is 76-years-old.
Family & Siblings
Dan Trejo was born on May 16, 1944 on Temple Street in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, to Mexican American parents. He is the son of Alice Rivera and Dionisio “Dan Trejo (1922–1981), a construction worker, and a second cousin of filmmaker Robert Rodriguez (born 1968 in San Antonio, Texas), though the two were unaware that they were related until the filming of Desperado.
Wife & Children
Trejo owns a home in the San Fernando Valley. His two children are now with his former wife Debbie; he filed for divorce in 2009.
Defends Law Enforcement Following Los Angeles Ambush Shooting
Actor Danny Trejo spoke out in favor of law enforcement after the ambush shooting of two members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
In addition to acting, Trejo runs a handful of restaurants including Trejo’s Tacos. After hearing the story of Claudia Apolinar, a 31-year-old mother who provided lifesaving medical attention to her 24-year-old partner after they were both shot in their car at a metro center in Compton, the star got personally involved.
Speaking to TooFab, Trejo noted that some people “had the nerve” to ask him why he was feeding cops amid heightened tension between law enforcement and the Black community.
“She’s bada–, she’s got bigger b—- than anybody I know,” he said of Apolinar.
As for critics of his decision to do something nice for an injured law enforcement officer, Trejo said he finds the division silly.
“What’re you kidding?” he told the outlet. “People don’t understand, man. We’re all in this together. An ambush is lying in wait and taking somebody’s life. … It’s sad that, yeah, we’ve got some police officers that are not good people, but even like the gangsters that beat someone, I know that sounds … there are real gangsters out there. They’re upset.”
He added: “That’s why the Mexican mafia tried to stop drive-bys, not because they’re so community-oriented, but because it brings heat! You know what I mean? All of a sudden now all of the cops are down on Mexicans because they’re doing drive-bys and killing innocent people. So freeze it. This ambush, all it did was bring heat, more heat on the Black community and how much more heat can you get?!”
Trejo, who spent several years behind bars before giving up crime to become an actor, noted that even when he was committing crimes in his youth, he’d never stoop to ambushing police.
“Yeah there are some bad cops, but when I was doing it all, I knew I had an a– whipping coming and I took it, and for a couple of things I did, I probably had a killing coming [by cops],” he explained. “With all the stuff that I went through with the police, I still wouldn’t lay an ambush on a mother and a 24-year-old kid.”
Although he’s been dragged into the controversy surrounding policing in the United States, Trejo notes that he sees climate change as the biggest threat to humanity, and finds everything else to be a distraction.
“Scientists now are giving us a nine to 15 years before we have done irreversible damage to this planet,” he said, adding, “So right now we’re all on the Titanic looking for a good seat. If we don’t get this thing together with law enforcement, with black, with brown, with yellow, with white, everybody!”
Later in the interview, Trejo refused to give an endorsement in the upcoming election but noted that the most important issue with him is climate change. Although he admitted that he doesn’t believe the Donald Trump administration takes the existential threat seriously, he also admitted that he would be willing to work with Trump on law enforcement reform like fellow celebrity Ice Cube, who recently caught backlash for agreeing to work with the administration.
