Beloved character actor Charley Scalies died Thursday at age 84 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.
Scalies’ daughter Anne Marie Scalies revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that her father died Thursday at a nursing facility in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Scalies portrayed stevedore Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa on 12 episodes of The Wire through the present’s second season, which carefully examined the financial points Baltimore dockworkers confronted amid altering occasions.
Scalies additionally appeared in an episode of one other iconic HBO sequence – The Sopranos – as he performed Coach Molinaro, the highschool soccer coach of Tony Soprano, performed by late legend James Gandolfini.
The character appeared in an intense change in a dream scene in an episode titled The Take a look at Dream.
The dialogue between the coach – who noticed potential in a younger Soprano – and the fully-grown Tony Soprano illustrated the psychological insecurities the fearsome New Jersey mob boss harbored, and sought to handle via remedy.
A personality actor who had a key position on The Sopranos has died. The forged pictured in 2024 in NYC at an anniversary occasion for the long-lasting HBO present
Charley Scalies performed Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano’s highschool soccer coach, in a dream scene that confirmed the insecurities the troubled mob boss confronted (and sought to take care of via remedy).
The episode (which first aired Could 16, 2004) was the present’s eleventh episode of its fifth season, directed by Allen Coulter and written by Matthew Weiner and Sopranos creator David Chase.
A Legacy obituary – which famous Scalies died ‘peacefully’ – emphasised the position household performed in his life.
It famous he was ‘finest recognized at the start as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and good friend,’ including that his ‘favourite viewers was at all times seated across the dinner desk.’
Season two of The Wire confirmed how the gradual occasions on the docks led a number of employees – together with Pakusa – to earn additional money smuggling in contraband.
On The Wire, the Horseface character was second-in-command to union chief, Frank Sobotka (performed by Chris Bauer), who had gotten right into a determined state of affairs attempting to maintain his union and employees afloat amid declining occasions for the longshoremen.
Sobotka, assisted by Horseface and his nephew Nick Sobotka (performed by Pablo Schreiber) ultimately resorted to felony smuggling to fund political efforts in a last-ditch effort to reinvigorate enterprise on the docks.
Amid the gadgets unwittingly smuggled in by the Baltimore crew medicine and girls tragically trafficked into the U.S. to be intercourse employees.
Scalies died at age 84 following a battle with Alzheimer’s, in accordance with his household
He performed Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano’s highschool soccer coach, in The Sopranos
He had a memorable change with a grown Tony Soprano (performed by the late James Gandolfini) that exposed the insecurities the mob boss harbored
Scalies portrayed Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa for 12 episodes of The Wire
‘The one time I’ve even been on the docks is once I labored on The Wire,’ Scalies informed Chesapeake Bay Journal in 2019.
Scalies stated that ‘the one time I even met a stevedore was shortly after I used to be forged as Horseface.’
The position was an ideal match, as shortly after touchdown the half, Scalies occurred to speak with a number of real-life stevedores and union reps for the Worldwide Longeshoremen’s Affiliation, who all accepted of the casting.
‘I informed them I had simply been forged as a union “checker” on a TV present,’ he recalled. ‘Their response was quick and unanimous: “He seems to be like a checker.”‘
Scalies defined: ‘As with all the opposite characters I’ve been blessed to painting, Horseface lives within me – I invite him out to play as wanted.’
On Twitter, a variety of followers of the present paid homage to the late actor within the position he performed on The Wire, making inside references to scenes that concerned his character.
A publish from The Wire fan account Ziggy_Sobotka learn: ‘Heartbroken to report that Charlie Scalies, Horseface on The Wire and Coach Molinaro from The Sopranos has handed away’
Followers made reference to a key scene that confirmed Horseface caring for an injured colleague
One fan posted a important scene from the present involving the late Michael Okay. Williams, who performed the character Omar
‘R. I. P. He’s nonetheless on the clock,’ stated one fan. One other added, ‘Nice characters RIP to the legend.’
Referring to a scene illustrating Horseface’s loyalty to the union, one fan wrote, ‘Good luck to St Peter getting something out of him on the pearly gates with out an IBS lawyer current.’
A publish from the Wire fan account Ziggy_Sobotka, named after one other dockworker on the sequence, learn: ‘Heartbroken to report that Charlie Scalies, Horseface on The Wire and Coach Molinaro from The Sopranos has handed away.’
It concluded: ‘Charles J. Scalies, Jr. 7/19/1940 – 5/1/2025.’
One Twitter person aptly remarked, ‘At what age does dying not break your coronary heart?’
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