Pulp Fiction and The Mask actor Peter Greene found dead at 60
Pulp Fiction star Peter Greene has passed away at the age of 60, it has been announced.
The actor - best known for taking on a slew of villainous characters on screen - was found dead at his New York apartment on Friday (12 December), his agent said.
Paying tribute to his 'terrific' friend and 'one of the great actors of our generation', Greene's longtime manager Gregg Edwards explained he was found unresponsive yesterday afternoon.
The New Jersey native was sadly pronounced dead at the scene. His cause of death has not yet been determined.
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Police said that they are not treating the death of Greene, whose role as mobster Dorian Tyrell in the 1994 film The Mask earned him critical acclaim, as suspicious.
A medical examiner is set to confirm the cause of death in due course.
Edwards told the New York Post after confirming the news of his passing: "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 worked with so many amazing actors and directors."
He described Greene's portrayal of Tyrell in The Mask, which he starred in alongside Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz, as 'arguably his best role', adding: "He fought his demons but overcame them."
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, in 1965, Greene ran away from home at the age of 15 and moved to New York. According to a 1996 profile in Premier magazine, Greene struggled with drug addiction and later dealing during his early years.
He would ultimately seek treatment after trying to take his own life.
After landing roles in films such as Laws of Gravity and Clean, Shaven during the early 1990s, Greene's work came to the attention of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, who cast him as sadistic security guard Zed.
Greene's character would be involved in one of the most controversial scenes in the film, which sees Zed and an accomplice rape Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) in the basement of a pawn shop.
The role was so graphic that Greene initially turned down the opportunity to play Zed, recalling his disappointment at reading the script in a 2011 interview.
"When I got the script, I was thoroughly disappointed," he explained.
"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, he was ultimately won over by Tarantino, who allowed Greene to make some changes to the scene.
"We kept the language that was there, but it was originally a much more graphic scene," he added.
Additional words by Brenna Cooper.
Olivia Burke