Death row con, Hollywood baddie.. and history buff

Star's new show reveals unusual finds that made people fortunes

- BY FRAN BOWDEN [e-mail]

FAMOUSLY playing tough guys in 400 films and TV shows, ex-convict Danny Trejo is also passionate about history. The actor, who once faced the death penalty for striking a prison officer with a rock during a riot in a tough California jail, says: "I love history. It was the only subject I ever got a good grade in at school. It's amazing to see what problems people in the past had to endure. It takes you away from what's going on with you at that particular moment.

Danny, 81, is best known for playing characters like knife-wielding henchman Navajas in Desperado alongside Antonio Banderas, and Mexican cartel crook Tortuga in Breaking Bad. Danny also played Isador "Machete" Cortex in the Spy Kids and Machete films.

And when his agent told him about the job for Sky History's Mysteries Unearthed, his reaction was: "Awesome, let's do it!" The series examines the fascinating stories behind buried artefacts and lost civilisations. He says: "It was just a no-brainer to say yes." Married and divorced four times, father-ofthree Danny — whose son Gilbert is an actor and director - has played 41 bad guys in all and been killed off more than any other actor.

A clause in his contract requires his characters to die on screen as a warning to youngsters that crime doesn't pay. He says, wryly: "There's also another reason. I realised the faster you die in a movie, the more movies you could make!"