"You might know him from Desperado, Grindhouse, The Devil's Rejects, xXx, Con Air, Heat, your worst nightmares."
Dan Trejo (born May 16, 1944) is a Mexican-American actor.
He's the kind of guy everyone can recognize, but not as many can name. He's been working in Hollywood since 1985 and has played dozens of supporting roles, usually as some kind of tough guy, henchman or thug. Trejo has also been in a number of Robert Rodriguez filmsnote , usually with slightly larger roles than he normally plays, including Desperado and the Spy Kids trilogy, finally culminating in his first leading role: the badass known as Machete. And, in a bit of Playing Against Type on King of the Hill, he voiced Enrique (the sad-sack bobtail driver from Strickland propane who wants to be Hank's friend).
He had criminal problems during his youth and spent time in jail, but the accounts of everybody he works with in the movies (everybody) is that he is one of the best people in the industry. The cameo-heavy and varied cast of Machete stems from all the people he worked with in the past wanting to contribute something to his first starring role.
Danny Trejo has appeared in:
- The Adventures of Puss in Boots: El Moco
- Against the Wall: Ramirez.
- American Horror Stories (The Naughty List): "Santa"
- Anaconda: Poacher
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Bartender
- Animal Factory: Vito
- Bad Ass (2012): Kind of self-explanatory, don't you think? Plays Frank Vega, a badass.
- Big City Greens (2018 – present): Vasquez
- Blood Ties (2007): Patcha Camac
- The Book of Boba Fett: Rancor trainer
- The Book of Life: Luis Sanchez
- Breaking Bad: Tortuga
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Oscar Diaz
- Bubble Boy: Slim
- Cage: Costello's bodyguard (uncredited)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops: Himself
- Clerks III: Auditionee
- Con Air: Johnny-23
- The Crow: Wicked Prayer: Harold
- The Curse of El Charro: El Charro (voice)
- Dead Again in Tombstone: Guerrero
- Dead in Tombstone: Guerrero
- Death Wish 4: The Crackdown: Art Sanella
- Def Jam: Fight For NY: Himself
- Desert Heat: Johnny Sixtoes
- Desperado: Navajas
- Desperate Housewives: Hector Ramos
- The Devil's Rejects: Rondo
- Dora and the Lost City of Gold: Boots (voice) (yes, THAT Dora and Boots)
- Elena of Avalor: Antonio Angama (in his human form only; Dee Bradley Baker voices him in his gecko form)
- Fallout: New Vegas: Raul Alfonso Tejada
- Fanboys: The Chief
- The Flash (2014): Breacher
- From Dusk Till Dawn: Razor Charlie
- From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money: Razor Eddie
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City: Umberto Robina
- Halloween (2007): Ismael Cruz
- The Haunted World of El Superbeasto: Boss Rico
- Heat: Trejo
- The Hidden: a prisoner
- Le Jaguar: Kumare
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth: Dwight
- King of the Hill: Enrique
- Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects: Prison Inmate
- Machete: Machete
- Machete Kills: See above
- Maniac Cop 2: Prisoner
- Marked for Death: Hector
- The Masked Singer
- Metro Manners: As Himself doing a Celebrity Endorsement in "Wait your turn to enter"
- Mickey Mouse (2013): Piñata leader (voice; in the episode "¡Feliz Cumpleaños!")
- Monk: Darnell "Spyder" Rudner
- Muppets Most Wanted: Danny Trejo
- Muppets Haunted Mansion: Cousin Hewitt
- The Muppets Mayhem
- NCIS: Los Angeles: Tuhon
- Pistolera: Indio
- Predators: Cuchillo (Named only in the script)
- Runaway Train: Prison boxer
- The Salton Sea: Little Bill
- Seis Manos: El Balde
- Six Days, Seven Nights: Pierce
- A series of Sling TV advertisements
- A Snickers commercial: Marcia Brady
- Sons of Anarchy: Romeo
- The Spongebob Movie Sponge On The Run: El Diablo
- The Patrick Star Show: Sockeye Sammy
- Spy Kids: Machete (Yes. That Machete.)
- Storks: Jasper
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): The Newtralizer
- The Replacement Killers: Collins
- A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas: Mr. Pérez
- Vigilante Diaries: Crazy Joe (uncredited)
- Violet & Daisy: Russ
- Walker, Texas Ranger: Joe Lopez / Jose Rodriguez (2 episodes)
- xXx: El Jefe
- Young Justice (2010): Bane
- Crime Boss: Rockay City (2023)
Danny Trejo embodies the following tropes:
- Adam Westing:
- His Old El Paso commercial plays up to his Typecasting.
- Also his appearance in Muppets Most Wanted, since he's in a gulag and plays a fictional version of himself.
- His Snickers commercial as an out-of-character Marcia Brady.
- His Sling TV ads where he describes evil as "how cable companies trick you with a low rate, and then, Bam! Your bill is over 100 bucks a month".
- Affably Evil: Many of his characters are definitely not on the side of angels but Trejo's natural charisma and likability make them hard not to enjoy anyway.
- Barbarian Longhair: He has long hair, a brawny physique and a lot of his characters are bad guys.
- Being Evil Sucks: Trejo confessed that he often chooses to play bad guys to teach younger audiences that bad guys are often killed in their line of work or they go to prison to face the consequences of their actions. Emphasising that one should try to live a decent life and stay out of trouble.
- Blade Enthusiast: Many of Trejo's characters in Robert Rodriguez movies have been named after knives or sharp instruments: Machete in Spy Kids and, well, Machete, Razor Charlie in From Dusk Till Dawn, Navajas (Spanish for blades) in Desperado, and Cuchillo (Spanish for knife) in Predators.
- Cast the Expert: He originally got into Hollywood as a fight coordinator and a stuntman, after winning a few boxing tournaments in the California State Prison system.
- Chronically Killed Actor: By virtue of playing expendable thugs to the point that he's been killed the most out of any actor by far, at a staggering 65. Invoked as per Being Evil Sucks: Trejo wants his villainous characters to be killed off to teach youngsters that crime doesn't pay.
- Cool Old Guy: Well into his seventies and still as tough and cool as ever.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Parodied in his Sling TV ads: "People say I'm evil. I say evil is how cable companies trick you with a low rate, and then, Bam! Your bill is over 100 bucks a month."
- Friend to All Children: He adores kids, and has said he enjoys playing villains as a way to show that bad guys don't normally win in the end. In real life, he helped to calm and rescue a child from an overturned car, using the experience he's gotten from working with special-needs children.
- Ink-Suit Actor: As Umberto Robina in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, as Dwight in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and himself in Def Jam: Fight For New York.
- Large Ham: When the situation calls for it, he can chew scenery with the best of them.
- Manly Facial Hair: Has a thick mustache and is as tough as they come.
- No Stunt Double: Averted, surprisingly enough given that he's known as one of Hollywood's go-to tough guy actors and started his career as a stuntman and fight coordinator. He does not have a high regard for actors who insist on doing their own stunts, mainly because they can hold up production for weeks or even months and put dozens of crew members out of work if they get injured."I know that all the big stars hate me to say this, but I don’t want to risk eighty peoples' jobs just to say I got big huevos on The Tonight Show. Because that’s what happens. I think a big star just sprained an ankle doing a stunt, and 80 or 180 people are out of a job.note We have stunt people who do that stuff. And if they get hurt, I’m sorry to say but they just need to put a mustache on another Mexican and we can keep going. But if I get hurt, everybody’s out of a job. So I don’t choose to do that."
- One of Us: He's a big fan of Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
- Production Posse: If a production is run by Robert Rodriguez, you can safely bet on Danny Trejo turning up at some point.
- Promoted Fanboy: During his role as Breacher on The Flash (2014): Reportedly, when his name was tossed out in the writer's room, the whole crew laughed it off, thinking they'd never be able to get him, but they asked anyway and it turned out he was a fan and gladly took the role.
- Real-Life Relative: He's actually Robert Rodriguez's second cousin. No nepotism is involved, however—in fact, they didn't even know that they were related until filming for Desperado had wrapped.
- Recovered Addict: He was an alcoholic and drug user for much of his adolescence and his early twenties but he eventually got clean and rebuilt his life, achieving fifty years sobriety in 2019.
- Reformed Criminal: He was heavily involved in the criminal lifestyle for much of his early life, serving multiple stints in prison, but later got sober, turned his life around and found acting, leading to a long and successful career.
- Tattooed Crook: Considering he plays a lot of crooks, the tattoos are just gravy.
- Typecasting: As a knife-wielding henchman/thug. Nobody does it better. He's also had several roles where he is either The Comically Serious or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- To a degree, he intentionally typecasts himself. He always wants the villains he plays to lose, because he wants to send a message to kids that crime does not pay so they won't make the same mistakes he did when he was young.
