Hollywood Villain Becomes Hero in Real Life

In the movies, he usually plays the villain. But in the real world, actor Danny Trejo just proved he can play the hero as well. The 75-year-old actor pulled a trapped special-needs child from an overturned SUV in Los Angeles, reports ABC7. The SUV flipped onto its roof after colliding with a sedan at an intersection, and Trejo crawled inside to get the child. He needed a sidekick, however. "A young lady had to crawl through the window because I couldn't get the baby out—I couldn't unbuckle the seat belt," he says, per KTLA5. She managed the buckle and he pulled the child out.

Trejo says he then distracted the child from the accident scene as rescuers helped others. "He was panicked. I said, 'OK we have to use our superpowers.' So he screamed, 'Superpowers' and we started yelling 'superpowers.'" Three people were taken to the hospital after the accident, but none had life-threatening injuries, says the Los Angeles Fire Department. Trejo is best known as the character Machete in the Spy Kids and Machete movies by Robert Rodriguez, notes USA Today. "Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else," Trejo tells ABC7. "Everything." (Read a much younger hero's story.)