Danny Trejo, best known for his tough-guy roles, truly showed his heart in 2019 when he saved a young child trapped inside an overturned SUV in Sylmar, Los Angeles. The incident occurred in August 2019, when Trejo—and another quick-thinking bystander—helped free a special-needs boy from a buckled-in car seat. The young woman unbuckled it, and Trejo pulled the child to safety while keeping him calm with their playful “superpowers” game.
He told ABC 7, “[The boy] was panicked. I said OK, we have to use our superpowers. So he screamed ‘superpowers’ and we started yelling ‘superpowers. I said do this, with the muscles. He said ‘muscles.’” Trejo added, “Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything.”
Not only is @officialDannyT (Danny Trejo) one of the nicest actors, he’s also a #hero!
He was right behind a crash in Sylmar and pulled a special needs baby out of an overturned car. He distracted the boy until grandma was OK. ♥️ —> https://t.co/tS2Za4bZVZ@ABC7 pic.twitter.com/U9iLzAkHkA
— Veronica Miracle (@vmiracleCNN) August 8, 2019
This year, fans got a scare when a fake “memorial-style” post claiming Trejo had died went viral—amplified when John Leguizamo reshared it. The actor, now 81, quickly took to Instagram to set the record straight, writing, “Thank you all for your concern, but I am very much alive. Someone is spreading fake news.”
Learn more about the actor below.
Trejo has always been candid about his troubled past. His first arrest came at just 12 years old, after he struck another boy with a rock. As a teenager, he worked as a getaway driver for his uncle and later landed in jail at 18 for stabbing a sailor with a broken bottle. By his 20s, Trejo had committed multiple armed robberies and was sentenced to 10 years at San Quentin after selling a bag of heroin—worth $30,000—to an undercover officer. While serving time, he bounced between prisons but discovered boxing, developing the skills that would eventually help him turn his life around.
While serving time in a Mexican prison, Trejo’s life took an unexpected turn. During a riot on Cinco de Mayo, he was placed in solitary confinement, where he kept himself sane by acting out scenes from The Wizard of Oz and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He has often credited prayer for helping him reform his life, and after his charges were eventually dropped, he committed to sobriety from alcohol and heroin. Now celebrating almost 60 years of sobriety, Trejo went on to work as a drug counselor for 15 years after his release, helping others turn their lives around just as he had.
