Peter Greene, a character actor best known for his role as the iconic villain, Zed in Pulp Fiction, has died.<\/p>\n
He was 60.<\/p>\n
He died in his home in New York City, his manager, Gregg Edwards confirmed on Friday.<\/p>\n
His cause of death was not immediately released.<\/p>\n
“He was just a terrific guy,” Mr Edwards said.<\/p>\n
“Arguably one of the greatest character actors on the planet; has worked with everybody.”<\/p>\n
Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Greene landed some of his first leading roles in Laws of Gravity in 1992 and Clean, Shaven in 1993.<\/p>\n
In 1994, he played the memorable villain in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, who is brought in to torture characters played by Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That same year, he played another leading villain opposite Jim Carrey and Cameron Diaz in The Mask.<\/p>\n
Greene was working on two projects when he died, including a documentary about the federal government’s withdrawal of funding from the US Agency for International Development, according to Edwards.<\/p>\n
He was also about to begin production with Mickey Rourke on an independent thriller called Mascots.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Peter Greene was known for playing villain characters. (Supplied: IMDb)<\/p>\n
“We’ve been friends for over a decade,” Mr Edwards said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Just the nicest man.”<\/p>\n
In a rare interview with Sissy Gamache, Greene said he initially was “disappointed” with the script for Pulp Fiction and he turned down the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The way it was written wasn’t my cup of tea,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Quentin [Tarantino], I don’t know why he pressed for me to do it, but he came back a couple of times and then I finally said, ‘I’ll do it if I can do it any way I wanted to,’ thinking he would never say that he would allow me to do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We just improvised the whole scene and we kept the language that was there.”<\/p>\n
Greene was known for his ability to play villains with other credits including Redfoot in The Usual Suspects and villain roles in Judgment Night, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, Training Day, and The Bounty Hunter.<\/p>\n
He is survived by a sister and a brother.<\/p>\n
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