The Sopranos actor Charley Scalies dies aged 84 as The Wire star passes away after Alzheimer's battle
THE Sopranos actor Charley Scalies has died aged 84, after a battle with Alzheimer's.
Charley, who also starred in The Wire, passed away at a Pennsylvania nursing home on Thursday, his family has revealed.
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Charley Scalies, who played Coach Molinaro in The Sopranos, has died aged 84
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He also starred as Thomas 'Horseface' Pakusa in The Wire in 2003
His daughter, Anne Marie Scalies, revealed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.
An obituary published on Legacy.com said the actor had "passed away peacefully after a long battle with Alzheimer's".
It added that he was "best known first and foremost as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend".
"His wife, children, and grandchildren," it said, "will miss his stories but will keep him in their hearts forever."
The actor from Philadelphia starred as Tony Soprano's high school football coach, Coach Molinaro, in the fifth series of the hit HBO show.
In the critically-acclaimed episode, called The Test Dream, the character appears to Tony, played by James Gandolfini, in a dream - criticising the Mafia boss for wasting his potential on a life of crime.
A year before landing the huge role, Charley had appeared in 12 episodes of HBO's The Wire as stevedore Thomas "Horseface" Pakusa.
In a 2019 interview, Charley said of the role: "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."
Charley also appeared in Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order.
He leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Angeline, five children and four grandchildren.
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