Danny Trejo, whose History Channel series Mysteries Unearthed with Danny Trejo premieres its second season on November 11, 2025, at 10pm ET, is known today for playing some of Hollywood’s toughest characters. But his first job in film came about by accident. In 1985, he was working as a drug counselor when one of his clients asked him to visit a movie set. That set was Runaway Train, starring Jon Voight and Eric Roberts.
In a Facebook Reel, Trejo recalled walking on to the set of the film, and “This guy said, ‘Hey, you want to be in this movie? You want to be an extra?’” Trejo was asked if he could act like a convict — which was easy, because Trejo had served time in prison himself, due to armed robbery and drugs. “They were going to give me $50 a day to act like a convict,” the actor recalled. “And me and Eddie [Bunker, who co-wrote and appeared in the film] laughed, because we’d been doing that for free forever!”