Danny Trejo didn’t have a bike accident to cause all those recognizable scars on him. The well-known 77-year-old Mexican-American restaurateur and actor who has appeared in over 300 films and TV shows, including “Blood In, Blood Out,” “Con Air,” “Spy Kids,” and “Machete,” knows exactly what it’s like to be the criminal he so frequently portrays.
Trejo, who was born in Los Angeles in 1944, faced more hardship than almost all of his characters. He participated in street life and violence, used and sold powerful drugs, engaged in fist and gun fights with rival gangs, served hard time in numerous jails, and even sat on death row before being set free on a technicality. After that, he cleaned up his act, struck it rich and landed a Hollywood role in the 1980s, and he never looked back.
However, getting there wasn’t simple, and things haven’t exactly gone according to plan ever since. These are the awful specifics, Danny Trejo.
TREJO’S UNCLE STARTED HIM ON THE PATH TO DRUGS AND CRIME.
Much like many other stories, Danny Trejo’s terrible tale starts with an abusive upbringing. According to the documentary “Inmate 1: The Rise of Danny Trejo,” the “Machete” and “Breaking Bad” actor suffered severe abuse at the hands of his father and grandparents when he was a young child. He grew closer to his Uncle Gilbert as a result because at least he showed him some love and care.
Trejo’s uncle, regrettably, wasn’t exactly a good example for him when he was a young man. With the aid of his uncle, he was exposed to drugs and developed a drug addiction. And that extends past merely the sporadic consumption of LSD and marijuana.
He started using marijuana when he was 8 years old, and by the time he was 13 he was a full-fledged heroin addict. In a similar way to Trejo, Uncle Gilbert introduced Trejo to crime.
He reportedly told the following tale to a group of people: “I remember giving my uncle a ride in my mom’s car… Stop here, let me get some cigarettes, he would say. As he leaves, he shouts, “Go, go, go!”. I would scream, “You motherf*ck! I’m in my mother’s car now. With $5,000 in his pocket, he could rob a bar for $80. ”.
Gilbert brutally beat Trejo, forcing him to stay upright or, in Trejo’s words, “get my head beat in,” and in the process, he also turned Trejo into a fighter. Trejo, even as a young teen, had an incredibly close-knit and knowledgeable relationship with crime and street life.
If you believe that you or someone you know may be a victim of child abuse, please contact Childhelp’s National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or use their live chat services.
Trejo fought frequently.
According to Grantland, Uncle Gilbert instilled a sense of toughness in Trejo by routinely ambushing the child, forcing him to maintain his guard and learn self-defense lest he risk getting a split lip. Trejo later admitted, “I was essentially his punching bag. ”.
The harsh training did help Trejo prepare for a life of crime and imprisonment (and, eventually, a career in acting), though. Additionally, it helped him get ready for the violent turf wars between rival street gangs that took place in Mission Park and other areas in his Los Angeles neighborhood.
Trejo learned there that while everyone is tough, not everyone is terrifying. People are not scared of tough guys, he proclaimed. People are terrified of crazy men. ”.
Benny “the Jet” Urquidez, a champion kickboxer, and Trejo occasionally engaged in combat during this time. Danny never capitulated, he said. He was an authority. He had a big heart and a strong jaw. ”.
According to Trejo, Echo Park in Los Angeles is “basically a ghetto,” and he recalls the constant physical pressures and strains of growing up there in an interview with Tony Gonzalez.
It was problematic, he says. “We were from Echo Park (EP), and the Temple Street gang and we frequently fought. Everything was constantly in a chaotic state. There were fights on the way to school and on the way home, so we had to keep people out of the neighborhood. ”.
Given his drug-using, drug-dealing, street-fighting, and generally criminal lifestyle, Danny Trejo had two options: either die or go to prison. Fortunately, it was the latter, though at first he didn’t realize how lucky he was.
According to Texas Monthly, Trejo was imprisoned for a total of 11 years in various southwest prisons. He was imprisoned for a brief period in 1962 for robbery and drug trafficking. Although he was quickly released, by 1965 he was back in jail—this time permanently—after selling four ounces of heroin (he claims it was sugar, per the story) to a federal agent posing as a drug addict.
After going through the difficult experience, he would eventually grow into the man he is today, but it didn’t happen right away. He continued to be a hardened criminal who was challenging to intimidate.
But that was about to change. He was moved from Soledad to San Quentin, a facility well known for its execution chambers, in 1968. According to the tale, Trejo’s upbeat demeanor abruptly changed when the topic of his first encounter with the location came up.
Two lights will be visible above the North Block as you draw near San Quentin. There are two lights: one red and one green. An individual is being killed when the red light is on. The first thing you notice about this location letting you know it’s a death house is that people enter and don’t leave.
With regard to marriage, TREJO HAS NOT HAD THE BEST LUCK.
Maybe Danny Trejo doesn’t resemble Brad Pitt. He hasn’t had many problems, though, attracting women to him over the years because of his reputation as a wealthy, good-hearted bad boy in Hollywood. Both being a good husband and being attractive to women require completely different skill sets.
On HITC, you can find details about Trejo’s previous relationships, including which of his five children each relationship gave birth to. His marriage to fellow actor Debbie Shreve, who starred in “High Hopes” and “Tennis, Anyone?” from 1997 to 2009 (a very long time for Hollywood), produced Danielle and Gilbert.
There isn’t a lot of information available in the public domain about the various ex-girlfriends of Danny Boy, Esmeralda, and Jose, aside from the fact that one of the women was named Maeve.
