What a hoot! Here's a fine piece of trivia for you.

Trejo is someone I would love to meet. He seems like salt of the earth.

https://x.com/BadSpit/status/1888062697855430750

Machete don't Text.....

As Robert Rodriguez tells it, after conceiving of the character of Machete and telling Danny Trejo about it, Rodriguez started receiving phone calls at random hours of the day from Danny, trying to convince him to make the film. One day, Robert said to Danny that he was busy and asked why Danny can't just send a text message instead of constantly calling, to which Trejo replied: "Machete don't text." This became one of his character's catchphrases in the film.

He's died more times than Sean Bean?

Sean Bean is a much higher profile actor than Trejo, so Bean's screen deaths are better remembered.

If you're going for quality over quantity, I'd nominate Paul McCrane for most frequently killed in gruesome fashion.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: iron chef, February 12, 2025 03:14 PM

I have seen Trejo only in a handful of films- Con Air and Heat are some of them. But his turn in Breaking Bad was my favorite.

He’s a case of bad parents/upbringing turned good. He started out on drugs at a very early age. Crime, prison, then found faith, and got sober. Lot of respect for that guy. He’s a real dude, been through an awful lot. The clause in his contract is definitely from his jail/prison stints. IIRC at one time he was going to get the death penalty if convicted. He really turned his life around.

Apparently Trejo's quite the guy. Some might remember a few years back he pulled a baby from an overturned vehicle.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
He’s a case of bad parents/upbringing turned good. He started out on drugs at a very early age.

His role model was his uncle Gilbert – a drug addict and armed robber. Trejo started using drugs at 8-years-old and was addicted to heroin by 12.

quote:

Lot of respect for that guy. He’s a real dude, been through an awful lot... He really turned his life around.

Trejo became a drug rehab counselor when he left prison and did that full-time for 17 years, before he got his first acting gig by chance. Today, he still helps heroin addicts at Western Pacific Med Corp. drug rehabilitation facilities.

“Everything good that happened to me was a direct result of helping someone else,” he explains.

Taken from "Danny Trejo busier than ever, but why helping others is most important."

Here is his biography from IMDB:

Danny Trejo was born Dan Trejo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, to Alice (Rivera) and Dan Trejo, a construction worker. A child drug addict and criminal, Trejo was in and out of jail for 11 years. While serving time in San Quentin, he won the lightweight and welterweight boxing titles. Imprisoned for armed robbery and drug offenses, he successfully completed a 12-step rehabilitation program that changed his life. While speaking at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting in 1985, Trejo met a young man who later called him for support. Trejo went to meet him at what turned out to be the set of Runaway Train (1985). Trejo was immediately offered a role as a convict extra, probably because of his tough tattooed appearance. Also on the set was a screenwriter who did time with Trejo in San Quentin. Remembering Trejo's boxing skills, the screenwriter offered him $320 per day to train the actors for a boxing match. Director Andrei Konchalovsky saw Trejo training Eric Roberts and immediately offered him a featured role as Roberts' opponent in the film. Trejo has subsequently appeared in many other films, usually as a tough criminal or villain.


He's one of the few actors I really admire. I would love for him to be in a romantic comedy with Sandra Bullock, or maybe a Hallmark Channel Christmas romance movie. That would be outside his normal casting. . .