Award-winning actor Peter Greene died inside his New York apartment in December shortly after he suffered an accidental gunshot wound to his upper arm, the medical examiner confirmed to The Post.
Greene, 60, was found dead in his Lower East Side dwelling on Dec. 12 — the same day he was scheduled to have a benign tumor removed from near his lung.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in New York City confirmed Wednesday that Greene sustained a “gunshot wound to the left axilla with injury of brachial artery” and officially deemed his manner of death an “accident.”
Given the “Pulp Fiction” actor’s tumultuous mental health history, including a suicide attempt in March 1996 and struggles with addiction, many wrongly assumed that he took his own life.
Gregg Edwards, “The Mask” actor’s longtime manager, spoke with Greene for the last time just two days before his sudden death.
“He sounded okay … It was just a totally normal conversation. He was a little nervous about the operation going in, but he said it wasn’t super serious,” Edwards told The Post in December.
“He was talking about that and hoping that I was going to be okay and wishing me well as I was wishing him well. We’re good friends. I love the guy … We were friends for over a decade.”
Sometime between their final call and Greene’s accident, neighbors reported hearing Christmas music blaring on a continuous loop from inside the actor’s Clinton Street apartment. They phoned for a wellness check, and a locksmith found Greene dead inside.
Greene was signed on to multiple projects at the time of his death, including as a co-producer and narrator for the documentary “From the American People: The Withdrawal of USAID.”
He was also slated to begin production on an independent thriller called “Mascots” with Mickey Rourke in January.
Greene’s devastated neighbors described him as “an amazing man” who often went out of his way to help carry packages and watch their dogs.
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“He was such a nice guy. He was so helpful. I read some of the reports this morning, and they said he was a difficult guy to work with — I didn’t find him difficult. That was not my perception of him,” Mary Patierno, who was crashing at a friend’s place in the building, told The Post in December.
Greene, who hailed from Montclair, New Jersey, ran away from home at 15 and lived on the streets of the Big Apple, where he turned to drug use and eventually dealing, he told Premier magazine in 1996.
He later turned the corner and made a name for himself portraying villains throughout the 1990s, including Zed, the sadistic security guard and serial killer in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction.”
He racked up 95 credits during his storied career, starring in projects like “Laws of Gravity,” “Clean, Shaven,” “Blue Streak” and “Training Day.”
