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Mark Margolis, best known as Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad, dies aged 83

The self-described ‘journeyman actor’ had parts in more than 60 films across five-decade career

Mark Margolis died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness. Photograph: Virginia Sherwood/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Adam Gabbatt
Fri Aug 4 2023 - 20:19

Mark Margolis, the American actor best known for his role as former drug kingpin Hector Salamanca in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has died. He was 83.

Margolis died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City following a short illness, his publicist said. His wife, Jacqueline, and son, Morgan, were at his bedside.

Margolis, who once described himself as a “journeyman actor”, had parts in more than 60 films across a five-decade career, including Scarface, Ace Ventura, and The Wrestler.

It was as Salamanca that Margolis arguably reached the widest audience.

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In Breaking Bad, Salamanca was a resentful former drug lord, who communicated only through use of a brass bell attached to his wheelchair and eventually died in dramatic fashion. In 2012 he was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.

Margolis was born in Philadelphia in 1939. After moving to New York, he studied under Stella Adler and began his career on stage.

Deadline reported that Margolis appeared in more than 50 off-Broadway plays, including as Bernie Madoff in a 2010 regional production of Imagining Madoff.

“He was one of a kind. We won’t see his likes again,” Robert Kolker, Margolis’s manager, said in a statement. “He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him.” – Guardian

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