R.I.P. Mark Margolis, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul‘s Hector Salamanca

Mark Margolis—the stalwart actor best known for his portrayal of cartel boss Hector Salamanca in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul—died Thursday in New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital following a short illness. Margolis’ son Morgan announced the news, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 83.

Margolis was born in Philadelphia and briefly studied at Temple University before moving to New York City to study acting under legendary teacher Stella Adler. “She was larger than life. Everything that I know [about acting] came from Stella,” he once said of his tutelage (via THR).

Margolis made his on-screen debut in 1976's X-rated The Opening Of Misty Beethoven. He enjoyed a few small roles in the proceeding years before making his first major booking in 1984 as bodyguard and hitman Alberto the Shadow in Brian de Palma’s Scarface.

Still, he never quite enjoyed the comfort of some of his contemporaries. “I am just a journeyman actor,” he once said (per THR). “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.”

However, he found success again in 1985 with a recurring role on the CBS crime drama The Equalizer, and later as menacing landlord Mr. Shickadance opposite Jim Carrey in 1994's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. From there, Margolis was picked up by Darren Aronofsky, who featured the actor in six of his films from 1998-2014: Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), The Wrestler (2008), Black Swan (2010), and Noah (2014).

It wasn’t until 2009 that Margolis started ringing his bell as Breaking Bad’s mute but menacing kingpin, Hector. He first showed up as the character in the season 2 episode “Grilled” for what was supposed to be a very brief appearance, but his practiced, twitchy facial expressions quickly made him a fan favorite. “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.

His surprising turn culminated in the (literally) explosive season four finale “Face Off,” for which he received an Emmy nomination for outstanding guest actor in a drama series in 2012. In 2016, he was also able to step back into the character—this time as a younger man—in the second season of the spin-off Better Call Saul.

Through it all, Margolis understood the challenges that many actors have faced and are currently facing right now. “[Fans] think that I’m some sort of rich guy, that everyone in the movies is making the kind of money Angelina Jolie is making,” he told The Observer in 2012 (via THR). “They don’t realize that most of my life has been a struggle.”