Green Book actor Frank Vallelonga Jr, 60, died of a cocaine and fentanyl overdose before being pushed from the car at 4 a.m. outside a sheet metal factory in NYC, officials say
- Frank Vallelonga Jr., appeared in Green Book and was found dead in the Bronx in November and died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl and cocaine
- Police found the 60-year-old actor’s body outside the Hunts Point sheet metal factory and initially suspected he had died of an OD before being thrown from a car
- Steven Smith, accused of hiding Vallelonga Jr.’s body, claimed he was approached by a woman named ‘Pam’ to dispose of the body
Frank Vallelonga Jr., an actor who appeared in the movie Green Book, died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl and cocaine.
New York City officials Monday announced the cause of death of 60-year-old Vallelonga Jr. known.
Are The body was dumped outside a sheet metal fabrication plant in Hunts Point just before 4am on November 28, 2022, according to police.
At the time, authorities indeed suspected that Vallelonga Jr. died of an overdose and that his body had been thrown from a vehicle.
The Death of Vallelonga Jr. was deemed an accident by the city’s medical research service on Monday, caused by the “acute intoxication resulting from the combined effects of fentanyl and cocaine,” a representative for the ME said.
The body of Vallelonga Jr. was discovered after a 911 caller called to report it.
The body of Frank Vallelonga Jr. was found on a street in the Bronx last November
It was discovered outside the Hunts Point sheet metal factory in the Bronx
A day later, 35-year-old Steven Smith was arrested and charged with concealing a human corpse.
Police claimed to have video footage of Smith throwing the actor’s body from a car and he later confessed to the crime while the police questioned him for his involvement in another case.
Smith told authorities that a woman named “Pam” had approached him and asked him to help her dispose of the body of a person who had overdosed.
The current status of Smith’s criminal case remains unclear.
TDailyMail.com’s initial indictment described how Smith “walked to the passenger side of the vehicle and pulled a human corpse from the passenger seat and dropped the body on the sidewalk.”
He then went back to the driver’s side and drove off “leaving the human corpse on the sidewalk.”
Vallelonga Jr. (right) is pictured with his brother Nick Vallelonga (center), who wrote the Oscar-winning movie Green Book. Their father was Frank Vallelonga Sr. (left). They are pictured here in 2008
“The guy was already dead. He overdosed. I had nothing to do with that. Pam came up to me and said someone had overdosed in the car. I went to the car and drove off. I don’t remember how,” Smith said, according to the police complaint.
“I went to Barrett where I dropped the body. I got the body out by pulling it out of the car onto the floor. I don’t know that man at all.’
Vallelonga Jr. was the son of Frank Vallelonga Sr. – better known as Tony Lip – who accompanied black pianist Don Shirley as a bodyguard on a tour of the Deep South in the early 1960s.
That story was turned into the Oscar-winning movie Green Book. Vallelonga Jr. starred in the movie playing the role of his uncle Rudy Vallelonga.
Nick Vallelonga (right) wrote the movie Green Book about his father Vallelonga Sr. (left) who accompanied black pianist Don Shirley on a tour of the South
After working as a bodyguard, his father Vallelonga Sr. acting and most famously appeared in The Sopranos – playing Carmine Lupertazzi.
Prior to his death, Vallelonga Jr. have collaborated with his younger brother and filmmaker Nick Vallelonga, who was the writer of Green Book.
The pair teamed up to produce the movie That’s Amore.
Vallelonga Jr. had a number of minor roles in several other productions, including an episode of The Sopranos.