Hollywood’s crime lord
Danny Trejo doesn’t need to act when he plays a hardened criminal.
Danny Trejo doesn’t need to act when he plays a hardened criminal, said Amos Barshad in Grantland.com. Before he stumbled into his first acting job some three decades ago, the star of movies like Machete and From Dusk Till Dawn was a real-life gangbanger, armed robber, and drug addict. During his early years in California, he yo-yoed in and out of prison on various charges—including stabbing a sailor in the neck with a broken bottle and selling several bags of mostly fake heroin to an undercover federal agent. In jail, he acted like a dangerous lunatic. “People aren’t afraid of tough guys,” he says. “People are afraid of crazy guys. If you try to bite them in the jugular vein, it’s like, ‘My God, this guy is trying to eat me!’” He quit drugs and violence in 1968 following a three-month stint in solitary confinement, and was working as a drug counselor when he visited an actor client on a film set in 1984. The director noticed his prison tattoos and hired him to play a convict. Since then Trejo has played bad guys and anti-heroes in about 200 movies, and plans to keep acting until he dies. “This is all gravy. In 1968, I was on my way to the gas chamber. Now I got f---ing action figures.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
The daily gossip: Taylor Swift dropping 'Eras Tour' movie extended cut on her birthday, Disney's 'Wish' disappoints at Thanksgiving box office, and more
The daily gossip: November 27, 2023
By Brendan Morrow, The Week US Published
-
Is Sen. Tommy Tuberville's Pentagon promotions pause finally coming to an end?
Today's Big Question Senate Democrats prepare a legislative end run around the Alabama Republican's obstructionist blockade
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
How a long-term truce in Gaza could have ripple effects across the Middle East
Talking Point Israel and Hamas have recently agreed to extend their peace for two more days
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published