Danny Trejo
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You might know him from Desperado, Grindhouse, The Devil's Rejects, xXx, Con Air, Heat, your worst nightmares.
—Cracked.com, "The 20 Best 'That Guys' Of All Time"
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Danny Trejo (born May 16, 1944) is an American actor that everyone can recognize, but not as many can name. When you see him, you tend to think, "Hey, It's That Guy!" He's been working in Hollywood since 1985 and has played dozens of supporting roles, usually as some kind of Mexican tough guy, henchman or thug. Trejo has also been in a number of Robert Rodriguez films, 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 Knife Nut known as Machete. As an Ink Suit Actor, he was Dale's "Man Friday," Octavio on King of the Hill.
He had criminal problems during his youth and spent time in jail, but the accounts of everybody he works with in the movies (Everyone) 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:
- Anaconda: Poacher
- Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Bartender
- Call of Duty Black Ops: Himself
- Con Air: Johnny-23
- The Crow: Wicked Prayer: Harold
- Death Wish 4 The Crackdown: Art Sanella
- Desperado: Navajas
- The Devils Rejects: Rondo
- Fallout: New Vegas: Raul Alfonso Tejada
- Fanboys: The Chief
- Grand Theft Auto Vice City: Umberto Robina
- Halloween (2007): Ismael Cruz
- The Haunted World of El Superbeasto: Boss Rico
- Heat: Trejo
- King of the Hill: Octavio
- Machete: Machete
- Maniac Cop 2: Prisoner
- Marked for Death: Hector
- Predators: Cuchillo (Named only in the script)
- Runaway Train: Prison boxer
- The Salton Sea: Little Bill
- Six Days Seven Nights: Pierce
- Spy Kids: Machete
- A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
- XXX: El Jefe
- Young Justice: Bane
- The Atoner: Has spent the last few decades helping people avoid going into the criminal lifestyle like he did.
- Badass
- Badass Grandpa: Maintains a good physical shape and can still pull off action roles despite being in his late sixties.
- Badass Long Hair
- Badass Moustache
- Badass Spaniard: An icon of Mexican badassery.
- Being Evil Sucks: Trejo confessed that he often chooses to play bad guys to teach younger audiences that bad guys often die or go to prison, and that one should try to live a decent life.
- Chronically-Killed Actor: By virtue of playing expendable thugs.
- Entirely intentional, as the above entry will indicate.
- Bizarrely averted in Fallout: New Vegas where he plays a 230+ year old ghoul.
- Heel Face Turn: A rare example of a real-life reformed criminal.
- Knife Nut: 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 Eddie in From Dusk till Dawn, Navajas (Spanish for blades) in Desperado, and Cuchillo (Spanish for knife) in Predators.
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Plays rough and cruel characters, but is widely reputed as one of the friendliest actors in Hollywood and a blast to work with. The Animal Planet documentary Pit Bulls and Parolees also reveals that he helps out at the Villalobos Pitbull Shelter, since he lives down the street, and they even named a dog after him.
- Older Than They Look: While his face is pretty rough, he is in extremely good shape and certainly doesn't look like he was born in 1944.
- One-Scene Wonder
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's quite short at around 5"6" but has a massive amount of muscle.
- South of the Border
- Tattooed Crook
- Typecasting: As a Knife Nut Mexican thug.