The actor has been remembered as a ‘husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend’

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.

Man in red jacket points while holding a cigar.

Charley Scalies, who played Coach Molinaro in The Sopranos, has died aged 84

His daughter, Anne Marie Scalies, confirmed 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 2004.

In a critically-acclaimed episode called The Test Dream, the character appears in a dream to Tony, played by James Gandolfini – 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 part: “As with all the other characters I’ve been blessed to portray, Horseface lives inside of me.

A man wearing a gray shirt and a black and orange vest.

He also starred as Thomas ‘Horseface’ Pakusa in The Wire in 2003

“I invite him out to play as needed.”

Charley was born in Philadelphia in 1940, the youngest of three, and grew up above his dad’s pool hall.

It was there that the seeds of his acting career were sown – as he entertained visitors with impressions of singer Al Johnson.

During highschool, Charley continued honing his craft as part of a comedy duo – with he and a pal performing anywhere they could.

But he took a hiatus from acting after graduating to pursue an alternative career in business – becoming a director of sales and contracts at a manufacturing company before setting up his own consulting firm.

He would rediscover a love for theatrics, however, during the early 1990s – picking up a number of roles on-stage in Springfield, Pennsylvania.

These included parts in Guys & Dolls, Chicago and The Wizard of Oz.

His TV breakthrough would come a few years later – with a small part in Mika Kaurismäki’s Condition Red in 1995.

That same year, he landed roles in Two Bits, starring Al Pacino, and Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys.

The success continued with further film parts in Liberty Heights (1999) and Jersey Girl (2004) – while his TV credits are listed as Life on the Street, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Cold Case.

Charley leaves behind his wife of 62 years, Angeline, five children and four grandchildren.