Beloved character actor Charley Scalies has died 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 Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa for 12 episodes of The Wire and also appeared in an episode of the critically-acclaimed mafia series The Sopranos.
He played Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano’s high school football coach, in a dream scene that showed the insecurities the troubled mob boss faced (and sought to deal with through therapy).
A Legacy obituary – which noted Scalies died ‘peacefully’ – emphasized the role family played in his life.
‘Best known first and foremost as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend,’ it stated, adding the actor’s ‘favorite audience was always seated around the dinner table.’
A character actor who had a key role on The Sopranos has died. The cast pictured in 2024 in NYC at an anniversary event for the iconic HBO show
Charley Scalies played Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano’s high school football coach, in a dream scene that showed the insecurities the troubled mob boss faced (and sought to deal with through therapy).
‘The only time I have even been on the docks is when I worked on The Wire,’ he told Chesapeake Bay Magazine in 2019. ‘And the only time I even met a stevedore was shortly after I was cast as Horseface.’
The role was a perfect fit.
Shortly after landing the part, he happened to chat with several real-life stevedores and union reps for the International Longeshoremen’s Association – who all approved of the casting.
Scalies died at age 84 following a battle with Alzheimer’s, according to his family
He played Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano’s high school football coach, in The Sopranos
He had a memorable exchange with a grown Tony Soprano (played by the late James Gandolfini) that revealed the insecurities the mob boss harbored
Scalies portrayed Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa for 12 episodes of The Wire
Pakusa found himself in legal hot water at the end of the show’s second season
‘I told them I had just been cast as a union “checker” on a TV show,’ he recalled. ‘Their response was immediate and unanimous: ‘He looks like a checker.”‘
The role lived ‘inside’ Scalies.
‘As with all the other characters I’ve been blessed to portray, Horseface lives inside of me,’ he also shared. ‘I invite him out to play as needed.’
