Beloved character actor Charley Scalies died Thursday at age 84 following a battle with Alzheimer’s.
Actor Scalies’ daughter, Anne Marie Scalies, shared with The Hollywood Reporter that her father passed away on Thursday at a nursing facility in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
Scalies played the role of stevedore Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa in 12 episodes of The Wire during the show’s second season. The series delved into the economic challenges encountered by Baltimore dockworkers amidst evolving circumstances.
In addition to his role on The Wire, Scalies made an appearance in a single episode of another renowned HBO show – The Sopranos. He portrayed Coach Molinaro, the high school football coach of Tony Soprano, brought to life by the late great James Gandolfini.
The character appeared in a dream scene of an episode titled The Test Dream, as the exchange illustrated the psychological insecurities Soprano (a fearsome New Jersey mob boss) faced, and sought to address through therapy.
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 episode (which first aired May 16, 2004) was the show’s 11th episode of its fifth season, directed by Allen Coulter and written by Matthew Weiner and Sopranos creator David Chase.
A Legacy obituary – which noted Scalies died ‘peacefully’ – emphasized the role family played in his life.
It noted he was ‘best known first and foremost as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend.’
The obit said the actor’s ‘favorite audience was always seated around the dinner table.’
Season two of The Wire showed how the slow times at the docks led a few workers – including Pakusa – to earn extra cash smuggling in contraband.
Amid the items unwittingly smuggled in by the Baltimore crew drugs and women tragically trafficked into the U.S. to be sex workers.
‘The only time I have even been on the docks is when I worked on The Wire,’ Scalies told Chesapeake Bay Magazine in 2019.
Scalies said that ‘the only time I even met a stevedore was shortly after I was cast as Horseface.’
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
The role was a perfect fit, as shortly after landing the part, Scalies happened to chat with several real-life stevedores and union reps for the International Longeshoremen’s Association, who all approved of the casting.
‘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.”‘
Scalies explained: ‘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.’
On Twitter, a number of fans of the show paid homage to the late actor in the role he played on The Wire, making inside references to scenes that involved his character.
A post from The Wire fan account Ziggy_Sobotka read: ‘Heartbroken to report that Charlie Scalies, Horseface on The Wire and Coach Molinaro from The Sopranos has passed away’
Fans made reference to a key scene that showed Horseface caring for an injured colleague
‘R. I. P. He’s still on the clock,’ said one fan. Another added, ‘Great 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 anything out of him at the pearly gates without an IBS lawyer present.’
A post from the Wire fan account Ziggy_Sobotka, named after another dockworker on the series, read: ‘Heartbroken to report that Charlie Scalies, Horseface on The Wire and Coach Molinaro from The Sopranos has passed away.’
It concluded: ‘Charles J. Scalies, Jr. 7/19/1940 – 5/1/2025.’
One Twitter user aptly remarked, ‘At what age does death not break your heart?’
