He had a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
The Sopranos and The Wire actor Charley Scalies has passed away at the age of 84.
The Philadelphia-born actor played Thomas “Horseface” Pakusa in the second season of The Wire and Tony’s high school football coach in a dream sequence on The Sopranos.
His daughter, Anne Marie Scalies confirmed the tragic news of his passing to the Hollywood Reporter.
He featured in all 12 episodes of The Wire’s second season in 2003 as Horseface, an incarcerated former IBS Local 1514 longshoreman from the Port of Baltimore who’s devoted to his crooked boss, Frank Sobotka (Chris Bauer).
In a 2019 interview, the character actor said: “As with all the other characters I’ve been blessed to portray, Horseface lives inside of me.
“I invite him out to play as needed.”
He would then feature in The Sopranos the following year as Tony’s former high school football coach, who berates him in a dream sequence for “taking the easy way out” by becoming a criminal.
Scalies earned bit parts in the 1995 movies Condition Red, the Al Pacino-starring Two Bits and Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.
He was born the youngest of three children on July 19, 1940 and was raised in South Philadelphia in a home above his father’s pool hall, where he entertained patrons with jokes and Al Jolson impressions as a kid.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Angeline; his children, Chuck, Angeline, Tony, Christa and Anne Marie; and his grandchildren, Charles IV, Christopher, Domenic and Amelia.
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