Ray Sharkey; Played Tough Guys on TV, in Films

Ray Sharkey, the hard-living actor who starred as a crime boss in the television series “Wiseguy,” died of the complications of AIDS, his manager said Saturday. He was 40.

Sharkey died Friday at Lutheran Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., said Herb Nanas. He had been in Southern California until a week ago when he returned home to New York.

“Doctors said he was supposed to pass away six to eight months ago. He put up the most extraordinary battle,” Nanas said.

Sharkey battled drug abuse through much of his career, and Nanas said last year that the actor was infected with the AIDS virus through intravenous drug use.

Sharkey, who appeared frequently in films, won a Golden Globe award for his performance in the 1980 movie “The Idolmaker,” portraying a rock music promoter based on real-life producer Bob Marcucci.

But he was perhaps best known for his role as Atlantic City, N.J., mob boss Sonny Steelgrave in the drama “Wiseguy” that appeared on CBS from 1987 to 1990. After his character was killed off in the show’s first season, fans formed a Sonny Steelgrave Memorial Society.

Sharkey excelled at playing tough guy roles on screen, and he was no pushover off screen, either.

“I was in a lot of fights, taken to the hospital and stitched up a few times,” he said of his childhood in Brooklyn’s rough Red Hook district. “I’ve never been stabbed, but quite a few bottles have been broken over my head.”

Sharkey said he decided to become an actor after seeing Jack Lemmon portray an alcoholic in the 1962 film “Days of Wine and Roses.”

Throughout his career, he battled cocaine, heroin and alcohol abuse.

He was treated for chemical dependency in 1987, and in July, 1992, he was arrested in Canada for heroin possession. The arrest cost him a part in the television series “The Hat Squad.”

He once said of his drug use, “I went at it full blown. It was fun for a while. Then it got crazy and by 1985 it was sickening.”

But despite his troubles he appeared frequently in movies and on television.

His feature film credits included “Trackdown,” “Paradise Alley,” “Who’ll Stop the Rain,” “Willie and Phil,” “Some Kind of Hero,” “Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills,” “Wired” and last year’s “Zebrahead.” His final appearance was that of a gangster in this year’s “Cop and a Half.”

On television, he appeared in “Capone in Prison,” “Neon Empire,” “27 Wagons Full of Cotton,” and the series “Barney Miller,” “The Jeffersons,” “All in the Family,” “Starsky and Hutch” and “Crime Story.”

A funeral will be held Wednesday in Brooklyn, Nanas said.