Charley Scalies, actor from The Wire and The Sopranos, dies

Last Thursday, Charley Scalies , a renowned American actor who appeared on the iconic series 'The Wire' and 'The Sopranos' , passed away. The artist died at the age of 84 in a nursing home in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania , after a long battle with Alzheimer's, his daughter Anne Marie Scalies told The Hollywood Reporter (THR).

Charley Saclies played longshoreman and union organizer Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa in the second season of The Wire, and Tony's high school football coach in a dreamlike scene from The Sopranos. He appeared in 12 episodes of HBO 's The Wire during its second season in 2003 as Horseface , the imprisoned former Port of Baltimore longshoreman devoted to his corrupt boss, Frank Saobotka (played by American Chris Bauer).

His prolific professional and artistic career includes his participation in films such as Liberty Heights (1999) and Jersey (2004), as well as his appearances as a guest actor on Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Cold Case .

“Like every other character I’ve been lucky enough to play, Horseface lives inside me ,” he said in a 2019 interview. Scalies returned to HBO the following year in The Sopranos’ fifth season, “The Test Dream,” where he starred as Coach Molinaro . His hard-bitten character appears in a dream, berating the vengeful Tony (James Gandolfini) for taking “the easy way out” by becoming a criminal and squandering his potential, according to the trade magazine.

The actor was born in Philadelphia on July 19, 1940, and spent his early years in a house in the city's south side, located above the pool hall run by his father. As a child, Charles Joseph Saclies Jr. entertained himself with jokes and impersonations of singer and actor Al Johnson .