Fans are paying tribute to Peter Greene, celebrated as one of cinema’s quintessential villains, following the discovery of his death in his Lower East Side apartment on Friday afternoon.
For days, the sound of Christmas music emanated from Greene’s Manhattan residence, prompting the building’s management to send a locksmith to enter the premises, neighbors informed the Daily News.
Upon entry, the actor, famous for his role in “Pulp Fiction,” was found unresponsive, lying face down on the floor around 3:25 p.m. His manager, Gregg Edward, later confirmed the death of the 60-year-old, though the reasons remain undetermined as of Saturday afternoon.
Edward, who represented Greene for over ten years, praised him as “one of the most brilliant character actors” in the business.
“No one embodied villainy quite like Peter,” Edwards shared with NBC News. “Yet he possessed a tender side that few witnessed, and a heart of gold.”
Fans also flocked to social media to honor Greene’s memory, with one admirer noting: “Whenever Peter Greene appeared, you could be sure he’d portray the grimiest villain. A truly unforgettable character actor.”
Many were quick to echo that sentiment.
“He played some of my favorite villains,” one fan wrote, remembering Greene as one of those actors whose name you could “never remember” but who “left such a huge impression.”
Others quoted the famous line from Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” in which he played the role of Zed, who’s brought in to torture the characters played by Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames.
“As a Tarantino fan, every time I hear or see the quote ‘Zed’s dead, baby,’ it’ll mean something different now,” another fan wrote.
A native of Montclair, N.J., Greene ran away from home at the age of 15 and lived on the streets of New York City before establishing himself as a baddie of the screen.
In addition to his brutal role in “Pulp Fiction” in 1994, he played another villain — Mafia boss Dorian Tyrell — opposite Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz in “The Mask.”
He went on to appear in nearly 100 films and TV shows, including a recurring role on NBC’s 2007 series “The Black Donnellys,” giving an all-too-convincing portrayal of an Irish gangster known for chopping off people’s toes.
He was also known for “Blue Streak,” with Martin Lawrence and Luke Wilson, and “The Bounty Hunter” starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler.
He “worked with everybody,” Edwards said.
More recently, he appeared as Wild Bill Miller, the leader of a white supremacist prison group, in the ABC series “For Life.” Earlier this year, he was seen as the leader of a dangerous biker gang in “Dope Thief” on Apple TV+.
According to IMDb, Greene had eight projects in the works at the time of his death, including “3 Days Rising,” a horror-thriller starring Mickey Rourke and Ice-T.
He was also working on a documentary about the federal government’s withdrawal of funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development, his rep said.
