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Outlook: Danny Trejo: The ex-con who cracked Hollywood

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Actor Danny Trejo looks angrily at the camera in a photoshoot. His bare chest and arms are packed with tattoos

18/08/2021 GMT

Danny Trejo: The ex-con who cracked Hollywood

BBC World Service - Outlook, Danny Trejo: The ex-con who cracked Hollywood

He’s played the tough guy in a long list of films but in his 20s faced the death penalty

Danny Trejo has over 400 on-screen credits mostly for playing the tough guy, but in real life his drug use and criminality saw him imprisoned. He made a remarkable turnaround.

Die, go insane or go to jail: these were the options Danny Trejo saw for himself as a young man growing up in the Los Angeles neighbourhood of Pacoima. Under the wing of his career-criminal uncle, Danny became addicted to heroin and spent most of his twenties in and out of high-security prisons across California. 

A decade after being released from prison for the last time and whilst working as a drug counsellor he had a chance encounter that set him on a path to the highly-successful Hollywood movie career he now has. 

Danny Trejo has over 400 on-screen credits, the record for the most on-screen deaths and has starred alongside some of the biggest actors in the business. He still lives in Pacoima and now gives back to the community he once terrorised. 

He's written a book about his life and career called Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Picture:  Danny Trejo in 2006
Credit: Estevan Oriol/Getty Images

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