Breaking Bad and Scarface star dies aged 83 as fans pay tribute

Breaking Bad star Mark Margolis has died aged 83. The actor - who played Hector Salamanca in the hit Netflix series and its spin-off Better Call Saul - passed away on Thursday after a short illness, his son Morgan said.

Morgan, CEO of Knitting Factory Entertainment, announced his father had died at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, The Mirror reports. Variety quoted his manager Robert Kolker as saying: "He was one of a kind. We won’t see his likes again. He was a treasured client and a lifelong friend. I was lucky to know him."

Mark was nominated for an Emmy award for outstanding guest actor in a drama series in 2012. Speaking about returning to the role of Salamanca for Better Caul Saul in 2016, he said he thought he was only due to be in one episode of Breaking Bad.

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"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.”

Mark was born in 1939 in Philadelphia to a humble family. His mother was a decorator and his father was a factory worker. He took his first acting class at 14 at Temple University before moving to New York to study drama at The Actors Studio.

He had several small roles before he became Alberto in Scarface in 1983. "I am just a journeyman actor," he sad. Truth to tell, six months after Scarface, I had to take a job with a real estate development friend for a few months just to get by.”

Mark went on to play surveillance expert Jimmy in CBS' crime drama The Equalizer before starring