The character arc of Danny Trejo
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 16 May 1944 in Maywood, California, raised on Temple Street in Echo Park. Between then and now sit an uncle who gave him his first drugs, a first deal at seven and a first arrest at ten, a decade in juvenile camps and California prisons, boxing titles inside San Quentin, a riot at Soledad in 1968 and a capital charge, a twelve-step programme found in solitary confinement, release in 1969, a job counselling addicts from 1973, a visit to a film set in 1985 to help a patient, an acting career of hundreds of credits, and eight restaurants. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Danny Trejo?
Solitary, facing the worst charge there is. That is where he got clean.
His childhood was hard in ways he has described plainly. His father was often violent with him. His uncle introduced him to marijuana at eight, heroin at twelve and cocaine at eighteen, and was responsible for his overdosing on the first heroin. He did his first drug deal at seven and was first arrested at ten. He has said his stepmother Alice was his only source of comfort in that house.
The 1960s were prison. Three years in a juvenile camp, then, in his own list, San Quentin, Folsom, Soledad, Vacaville, Susanville and Sierra. Inside San Quentin from 1966 he was a debt collector and a dealer, and he also became the prison lightweight and welterweight boxing champion.
In 1968 a riot broke out at Soledad on Cinco de Mayo. He hit a guard with a rock, and he ended up in solitary confinement facing capital charges and the possibility of the death penalty. That is where it turned. In that cell he found faith and joined a twelve-step programme, having first walked into one by accident at fifteen. He got off the drugs. He earned his high school diploma inside. He was released in 1969 and he has been sober ever since, which as of the last count he gave was more than five decades.
He worked as a labour foreman and helped build the Cinerama Dome, was a gardener, a salesman and part owner of a lawn care company, and from 1973 a substance abuse counsellor, which he has never stopped being. In the 1980s he helped set up sober living houses in the San Fernando Valley. One night in 1985 a teenage patient rang him from a film set, in trouble with cocaine, and he went down to help. It was Runaway Train.
On that set Edward Bunker, an ex-convict who was writing the screenplay, recognised him from San Quentin, remembered he could box, and got him hired to train Eric Roberts. Then Bunker persuaded the director to give him a part. He was paid a few hundred dollars a day and thought the first cheque was a mistake. Hundreds of films followed: Desperado, Heat, From Dusk till Dawn, Con Air, the Spy Kids films with his cousin Robert Rodriguez, and Machete, where the character he had played as a joke got his own picture. He has published a cookbook, owns eight Los Angeles restaurants, and still speaks in juvenile detention centres and recovery centres, often with a man he met while filming inside San Quentin and helped to get clean.
The moments
Danny Trejo's timeline.
The 1940s
Born in Maywood
Everyday. Echo Park, Los Angeles.
The 1950s
A first deal at seven
Setback, and it changed everything. Seven years old, and it had already started.
Arrested at ten
Setback, and it changed everything. Ten, and inside for the first time.
A decade of prisons
Setback, and it changed everything. Six prisons, in his own list.
The 1960s
Champion inside San Quentin
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two weight divisions, both his.
A riot, and a capital charge
Setback, and it changed everything. The lowest point, and it turned out to be the turn.
Carry on, or stop
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: get clean in the hole, taken, or stay who he was. He has been sober since 1969, has counselled addicts since 1973, and got into films because a patient called him for help.
He gets clean in solitary
Milestone, and it changed everything. In the worst cell he was ever in.
Out, and sober
Milestone, and it changed everything. Out at twenty five, and he never used again.
The 1970s
A drug counsellor
Milestone, and it changed everything. The job he has held longer than any of the others.
The 1980s
Sober living houses
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Houses where people could get clean and stay clean.
A call from a film set
Milestone, and it changed everything. He went to help a patient and came home with a job.
Bunker recognises him
Milestone, and it changed everything. The prison was the reason he got the job.
The 1990s
Blood In, Blood Out
Milestone, and it changed everything. They filmed him acting in the cell he had lived in.
The Rodriguez films
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Ten films with his own cousin.
The 2000s
He goes back inside
Milestone, and it changed everything. He keeps going back into the rooms he came out of.
The 2010s
Machete gets his own film
Milestone, and it changed everything. A side character from a children film, given a franchise.
Trejo Tacos
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Eight restaurants, and a cookbook.
He counsels, he cooks, he still takes the parts. What he set moving is a career nobody planned, in which the face that kept getting him arrested made him one of the most recognisable actors in America, and he spent the whole of it going back into the rooms he came out of.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His turned in the worst room he was ever in, at twenty four, with the worst charge there is hanging over him. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Danny Trejo: frequently asked questions
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Where does this timeline of Danny Trejo's life come from?
More character arcs
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Sources
- Danny Trejo, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- His own accounts of the prisons and the twelve-step programme, as quoted there.
- Education of a Felon, by Edward Bunker, in which he appears.
- Trejo Tacos: Recipes and Stories from L.A., 2020.