'Pulp Fiction' Star Peter Greene's Last Words About Surgery Revealed Days Before Body Found Dead in NYC Apartment

Peter Greene sounded 'totally normal' when he chatted with his manager on Wednesday, just days before the 'Pulp Fiction' actor was found dead in his Manhattan flat at the age of 60.

His death was discovered after neighbours reported Christmas music playing on a loop for more than a day, a surreal detail in the sudden passing of an actor who had seemingly overcome a troubled past and was actively engaged in new projects.

The Final Conversation

The actor and his longtime manager, Gregg Edwards, spent that final phone call comforting each other about their respective upcoming surgeries. Neither of them knew it would be the last time they would speak with each other. 'That was the last time I talked to him', Edwards told The Post.

Greene was scheduled to undergo surgery on Friday to remove a benign tumour near his lung. Instead, that was the day his body was found. '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 explained.

The manager has his own hernia surgery coming up, so the pair spent time wishing each other well.

Christmas Music Played for Days Before Discovery

That Wednesday call ended, and not long after, Christmas music started pounding from behind Greene's door. And it did not stop. For more than a day, the same songs played on repeat until a concerned neighbour finally rang police for a wellness check.

A locksmith showed up around 3:25 p.m. Friday to get into the flat. He found The Mask actor unresponsive. Greene was declared dead at the scene. Police said they are not treating it as suspicious, but the medical examiner will determine what actually killed him.

The news has shaken the building's residents, who remember Greene not as a Hollywood villain, but as a kind neighbour.

'He was an amazing man. He was the very, very best', one woman who'd heard the Christmas music told The Post, though she did not want her name used. Another resident, Mary Patierno, said Greene's death was 'pretty devastating for everybody in the building'.

'My friends that I'm staying with, I told them, and they were like, "Oh, my God, he'd help us with our packages and carry stuff up and help us with our dog, and he was a really good guy"', Patierno said.

Neighbours Reject 'Difficult' Reputation

Some reports after his death labelled Greene as difficult to work with, but Patierno was not having any of that. 'He was such a nice guy. 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', she said.

Greene had been properly busy with work when he died. He was signed on to multiple projects, including as co-producer and narrator for a documentary about the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID that Edwards was set to direct. He had not done any narration yet for From the American People: The Withdrawal of USAID, which has Jason Alexander, Kathleen Turner, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof attached.

The Usual Suspects star was also about to start production in January with Mickey Rourke on an independent thriller called 'Mascots'. All of that's gone now.

A Troubled Past

Edwards admitted Greene had struggled with 'demons' in the past, but said the actor seemed happy and healthy in the days before he died. Greene ran away from home in Montclair, New Jersey at 15 and ended up living rough on New York's streets, where he got into drugs and eventually dealing, he told Premier magazine back in 1996. After attempting suicide in March 1996, he sought treatment for his addictions. But that was nearly 30 years ago.

The late actor made his name playing villains throughout the 90s. His most famous role was probably Zed, the sadistic security guard and serial killer in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 hit Pulp Fiction. That character's death led to Bruce Willis delivering the often-quoted line 'Zed's dead, baby'.

With about 95 credits to his name, Greene also starred in Laws of Gravity, Clean, Shaven, Blue Streak, and Training Day. He played Dorian Tyrell, the main villain in The Mask opposite Jim Carrey.

Edwards told NBC News that 'nobody played a bad guy better than Peter', but that he also had 'a gentle side that most people never saw, and a heart as big as gold'.

A Poignant End

There is something particularly gutting about Greene's death beyond just losing a talented actor. He'd turned his life around after those dark years in the 90s. He had work lined up. He had friends who genuinely loved him. He was nervous but ready for a surgery that was not even meant to be that serious.

And then he was just gone, found alone in his flat with Christmas music playing. The surgery that was supposed to help him never happened. The projects he was meant to work on will go ahead without him. That final phone call with Edwards, where they were both trying to reassure each other about their operations, turned out to be goodbye without either of them knowing it.