BARRY LEVINE: Character actor Trejo went from prison to stardom

Many Hollywood stars have experienced amazing lives. None, however, is more unbelievable than Danny Trejo’s.

The 72-year-old Trejo transformed himself from a druggie/thug as a youngster into an actor who has appeared in more than 200 films, as well as television shows and multiple commercials.

According to an interview with “Prison Legal News,” Trejo revealed that he was raised by an uncle who was a drug addict and an armed robber.

Trejo was introduced to marijuana at age 8, arrested for the first time at age 10 for assault and battery, and mainlined heroin at age 12. In 1957, at age 14, the actor was introduced to his first jail cell.

That started a tour of California state prisons during the 1960s that included San Quentin, Folsom, Tracy, Soledad, Vacaville, Susanville and Sierra for drug offenses and armed robberies.

The Los Angeles native was robbing liquor stores with live grenades to get money to support his drug habit and became a hardcore gangbanger with shootouts from car-to-car.

During his time at San Quentin, the notorious maximum security facility, Trejo began to turn his life around.

He captured the prison’s lightweight and welterweight boxing titles and successfully completed a 12-step rehabilitation program that helped him overcome his drug addiction.

At Soledad Prison, he and a group of others were accused of starting a massive riot on Cinco de Mayo (May 5) in 1968. Guards were hurt and, as a result, he spent three months in solitary confinement. He was released from prison on Aug. 3, 1969.

Trejo became a movie star solely by accident.

After his release, he started counseling teen drug addicts and working as a boxing coach. He also did various maudlin jobs, including cutting grass, even though he did not own a lawnmower.

While speaking at a Cocaine Anonymous meeting in 1985, Trejo met a young man who later called him for support. Trejo then met with the man on the set of the 1985 movie “Runaway Train,” a thriller starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, Rebecca De Mornay and John P. Ryan.

Trejo was immediately offered a role as a convict extra, probably because of his rugged, tattooed appearance.

Also on the set was a screenwriter who did time with Trejo in San Quentin. Remembering Trejo’s boxing skills, the screenwriter offered him $320 per day to train the actors for a boxing match. Director Andrey Konchalovsky saw Trejo training Roberts and immediately offered him a featured role as Roberts’ opponent in the film.

That started his Hollywood career.

Besides “Runaway Train,” Trejo is best known for his roles in “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown” (1987); “Desperado” and “Heat ” (1995);” “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996); “Con Air” (1997); “Reindeer Games” (2000); “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” (2004); “Grindhouse” (2007); “Machete” (2010), and the sequel, “Machete Kills” (2013).

Among the TV shows on which he has appeared are “Baywatch,” “Desperate Housewives,” “NYPD Blue,” “Walker: Texas Ranger” and “George Lopez.”

Among his most recognizable commercials was the 2015 Snickers Super Bowl ad in which he portrayed Marcia Brady, the pert, blond high school student of “The Brady Bunch.”

He currently is doing commercials for Sling TV, a subsidiary of Dish Network, which is promoting fewer channels for $20 a month.

In 2005, an award-winning independent film called “Champion” was made to document Trejo’s life. The film featured Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Steve Buscemi and Robert Rodriguez.

This scary-looking guy is now one of Hollywood’s most beloved action heroes and a celebrity red-carpet regular.

Trejo is living proof of how sometimes a person needs a second, third and even a fourth chance before turning his life around.

This week in rock history: The Beach Boys recorded “I Get Around” on April 2, 1964. It became their first No. 1 single, selling nearly 2 million copies. …The Marcels took “Blue Moon,” a tune written in 1934 by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, to the top of the charts on April 3, 1961. Rodgers hated the Doo-Wop arrangement so much that he took out advertisements in trade papers, urging people not to buy it. … Bobby Goldsboro received a Gold record for the single, “Honey” on April 4, 1968. It had spent five weeks at No. 1. … After riots had erupted in 30 cities, James Brown made a national television appeal on April 5, 1968, for calm in the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Perry Como had his ninth No. 1 single since 1945 on April 6, 1957, and his only chart-topper in the modern rock ‘n’ roll era with “Round and Round.” … Little Richard’s “Long Tall Sally” entered the Pop chart on April 7, 1956, where it climbed to No. 6. … Britain’s BBC Radio banned the song “100 Pounds of Clay” by Gene McDaniels on April 8, 1961, because it has a reference to women being created from building materials, which the network considered blasphemous.

Barry “The Old Rocker” Levine is an entertainment writer for The Albany Herald. He can be reached at [email protected].