Tough-talking actor Charley Scalies – who had roles in “The Wire” and “The Sopranos” — died Thursday in a Pennsylvania nursing home, according to family. He was 84.
Scalies passed away in Phoenixville after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his daughter Anne Marie told the Hollywood Reporter.
He also performed alongside the likes of Al Pacino in “Two Bits,” and Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in “12 Monkeys” during an acting career that stared in the 1990s.
Then he landed a role in season 2 of “The Wire” as a Thomas “Horseface” Pasuka, appearing in all 12 episodes of the seminal 2003 season as a longshoreman union leader who helps run a car-theft scheme out of the Baltimore docks.
Later he played Tony Soprano’s cigar-chewing high school football coach in “The Sopranos” season 5, where he came to the mob boss in a dream to insult him for choosing a life of crime.
Scalies also appeared in “Cold Case,” “Law & Order,” “Jersey Girl” and other shows over the years.
He had a wife, three kids, and numerous grandchildren.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
