Pulp Fiction actor Peter Greene’s cause of death revealed as ‘accidental’ incident

Film star, who played memorable villain roles, was found dead in December 2025

Pulp Fiction actor Peter Greene’s cause of death has been revealed, two months after he was found unresponsive in his New York apartment.

Greene, who played memorable villains in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film as well as Jim Carrey comedy The Mask, died on 12 December 2025.

On Wednesday (18 February), the New York City medical examiner said that Greene’s death was caused by an accidental gunshot wound to the armpit.

The cause was officially listed as “gunshot wound of left axilla with injury of brachial artery”. No other details were given.

Greene won the Best Actor prize at the 1994 Taormina International Film Festival for his star-making role in Lodge Kerrigan’s Clean, Shaven, in which he played a man with schizophrenia.

He later accepted numerous villain roles, in films including The Mask, where he played mafia kingpin Dorian Tyrell, and The Usual Suspects and Under Siege 2.

Peter Greene was found unresponsive in December 2025 (Getty Images)

But it was Pulp Fiction that loomed largest, with Greene playing Zed in the Tarantino classic, a security guard who holds captive characters Butch and Marcellus, played by Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames.

In one of the most disturbing scenes from Nineties cinema, Zed orders his accomplice – a masked sex slave known only as The Gimp – to watch over Butch while he rapes Marcellus.

After a violent confrontation, Butch steals Zed’s prized motorcycle and gives it to his girlfriend, telling her that “Zed’s dead, baby – Zed’s dead”.

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In a rare interview in 2011, Greene admitted that he initially turned down the role due to its content. “When I got the script, I was thoroughly disappointed,” Greene 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 kept pursuing him to take the role, and eventually allowed Greene to alter the scene to his preference. “We kept the language that was there, but it was originally a much more graphic scene.”

Peter Greene in ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Miramax)

“He was a terrific guy,” Greene’s manager Gregg Edwards said in a statement. “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.”

Greene’s other credits include the action film Judgment Night, the Halle Berry thriller The Rich Man’s Wife and the Jennifer Aniston action comedy The Bounty Hunter.