'Nobody Played a Bad Guy Better'

Peter Greene, the actor who specialized in playing memorable villains in films like Pulp Fiction and The Mask, has died at 60. He was found dead on Friday in his Manhattan apartment, his manager Gregg Edwards told Deadline. A cause of death hasn't been disclosed. Edwards says that a wellness check had been carried out after music was heard coming from the apartment for more than a day, per NBC News.

Born Oct. 8, 1965, in Montclair, New Jersey, Greene began his on-screen career in 1990 with an appearance on NBC's crime drama Hardball and made his film debut in 1992's Laws of Gravity opposite Edie Falco, per Deadline. Greene quickly moved into leading work, starring in 1993's Clean, Shaven, which screened at Cannes the following year. In 1994 he landed two of his best-known roles: sadistic criminal Zed in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, and mobster Dorian Tyrell, the chief antagonist to Jim Carrey in The Mask. Greene went on to work regularly in both film and television.

His movie credits included Kiss & Tell, Blue Streak, End Game, The Bounty Hunter, The Usual Suspects, and Training Day. On the small screen, he was a series regular on NBC's The Black Donnellys and had recurring roles on ABC's Life on Mars and NBC's Chicago PD. Most recently, he appeared in an episode of The Continental, the John Wick prequel series.

Edwards called Greene "one of the best character actors on the planet" and said the actor had two upcoming projects: the film Mascots with Mickey Rourke, and a documentary he was narrating called From the American People: The Withdrawal of USAID, featuring Jason Alexander and Kathleen Turner. Greene, Edwards said, was committed to highlighting deaths linked to the pullback of US foreign aid, noting, "He was a good friend who would give you the shirt off his back. He was loved and will be missed." Edwards added, per Today: "Nobody played a bad guy better than Peter." Greene is survived by a brother and a sister.