ACTOR PLAYED VILLAIN IN ‘BREAKING BAD,’ HIT MAN IN ‘SCARFACE’

1939-2023

Mark Margolis, the prolific actor whose simmering air of menace as the fearsome former drug lord Hector Salamanca in “Breaking Bad” transformed the innocent ding of a bellhop bell into a harbinger of doom, died Thursday in New York. He was 83.

His death, at Mount Sinai Hospital following a brief illness, was confirmed in a statement Friday by his son, Morgan Margolis. Margolis lived in Manhattan.

Margolis notched more than 160 credits in movies and on television, gaining particular notice with memorable roles in Brian De Palma’s “Scarface” (1983), playing opposite Al Pacino as a cocainesyndicate henchman, and in the Jim Carrey comedy “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” (1994), in which he played Ventura’s aggrieved landlord with delicious malevolence.

He also became a go-to actor for director Darren Aronofsky, appearing in his films “Pi”, “Requiem for a Dream”, “The Fountain”, “The Wrestler”, “Black Swan” and “Noah.”

But no role made him as instantly recognizable to millions of viewers as his Hector in Vince Gilligan’s critically acclaimed series “Breaking Bad,” which ran for five seasons on AMC, starting in 2008, and in its prequel, “Better Call Saul.” .

The role, in “Breaking Bad,” brought Margolis an Emmy nomination in 2012 for outstanding guest actor in a dramatic series.

An aging former drug cartel don from Mexico, Hector, had come to live in a New Mexico nursing home, unable to speak or walk following a stroke but still firmly in control of his power as a rival to Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who evolves into a coldhearted kingpin in the crystal meth trade.

Despite his lack of dialogue in “Breaking Bad,” Margolis proved a scenestealer from his wheelchair, his eyes bulging, his face trembling with rage, despite the nasal cannula pumping oxygen up his nose and his palm furiously banging his bell, taped to an arm of the chair, whenever he needed attention.

“Everybody says, ‘My God it must be difficult to work without words,’ ” he said in a 2012 interview with Fast Company. “My joke is, ‘No. I’m already grounded in the fact that I’ve been acting without hair for years, and that’s not a problem. So, now I’m acting without words.’ ”