Danny Trejo | Runaway Train

If you were with Danny Trejo when he was growing up, you would have very little hope that he would amount to someone significant. He had been a constant user of the state’s legal system, frequently conferring with lawyers for his various legal troubles. He eventually shaped up, though, after undergoing a 12-step program that helped him clean up his act.

In a twist of events, it is his life experience that pivoted him to acting. While acting as a youth counselor, a teenage patient asked Trejo for assistance on how to deal with substance abuse on the set of Runaway Train. While helping out and giving advice on the costume and acting of a particular group of people, he was eventually offered a job and to be paid $320 to train one of the actors, Eric Roberts, for a boxing scene. His work was exceptional in that he was given a credit role as a boxer in the movie.