Kit Roberts
Actor Peter Greene has died at the age of 60, his agent has confirmed.
Greene, 60, was found at his apartment on the Lower East Side in New York on December 12 at around 3:25pm local time, with his manager of 10 years, Gregg Edwards, saying that he was sadly confirmed dead at the scene.
At present, no official cause of death has been determined; however, police have said that they are not treating the death as suspicious, but the medical examiner will confirm the cause of death for the actor, The New York Post reports.
Greene became known for playing villains, establishing a presence on screen in the 1990s. This included a role in 1994's The Mask, which starred Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, as the ambitious mafia antagonist Dorian Tyrell, and a role as Zed in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, which came out the same year.
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Edwards paid tribute to the late actor in a statement, saying: “He was a terrific guy. Truly one of the great actors of our generation. His heart was as big as there was. I’m going to miss him. He was a great friend.”
He went on to say: “He worked with so many amazing actors and directors."
The actor's manager added that his performance as Tyrell was 'arguably his best role', adding: “He fought his demons but overcame them.”
Edwards also told NBC News: "Nobody played a bad guy better than Peter. But he also had, you know, a gentle side that most people never saw, and a heart as big as gold."
Greene had recently taken on a role with Mickey Rourke for an independent thriller called Mascots, which was due to begin production in January, Edwards revealed.
He said that when he called up the film's director, Kerry Mondragón, to inform him of Greene's death, he broke down in tears, adding: “They were very upset.”
Greene's role in Pulp Fiction also stuck out, taking on the role of Zed, who plays out a highly disturbing scene.
In an interview in 2011, Greene revealed that he had turned the part down at first due to the graphic content, which involves Zed ordering a masked accomplice to watch over Butch, played by Bruce Willis, while he sexually assaults Marcellus, played by Ving Rhames.
“When I got the script, I was thoroughly disappointed,” the actor said.
“The way it was written wasn’t my cup of tea. If you ever saw Deliverance, you never saw the guy who took Ned Beatty and made him ‘squeal like a pig’ ever again, so I didn’t think it was a great career move.”
However, Tarantino convinced him to take on the role and allowed Greene to alter the scene, which included toning it down.
He said: "We kept the language that was there, but it was originally a much more graphic scene."
As well as Pulp Fiction and The Mask, Greene also starred in Judgement Night, The Rich Man's Wife, The Bounty Hunter, and The Usual Suspects.
Several social media users have also paid tribute, with one person calling him 'such a memorable character actor'.
"RIP Peter Greene. He totally stole every scene in The Mask," another said, while a third commented: "A terrific character actor. Gone too soon."