Actor Mark Margolis, best known for playing Hector “Tio” Salamanca on both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, a role for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination in 2012, has died at the age of 83.
Margolis died on Aug. 3 at New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital “following a short illness,” according to his son, Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Morgan Margolis.
“He was one of a kind,” Margolis’ longtime manager Robert Kolker said in a statement.
“We won’t see his likes again. He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him.”
In 2016, he spoke about returning to play Hector again and his surprise at the fans having taken a liking to him.
“I was only coming onto Breaking Bad as far as I knew for that one episode, but there’s no accounting for taste, and the fans took a fancy to me,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Somebody asked me recently, ‘How did you manage to play such a horrible guy?’ and I said, ‘Have you talked to my friends?’ They’ll tell you I’m pretty miserable to begin with.”