NEW YORK — The heartbroken family of “Green Book” actor Frank Vallelonga is struggling with the grim details of his shocking death.
The 60-year-old Vallelonga, whose father was played by actor Viggo Mortensen in the film that earned his brother Nick a pair of Academy Awards, was dumped in the darkness on a Bronx sidewalk on Monday after an apparent drug overdose.
“That’s the part that hurts,” his ex-wife Angela Vallelonga, 64, told the Daily News. “That hurt. You lose all faith in mankind. I just can’t believe someone could do that. What kind of person do you have to be?”
Vallelonga was the son of the late Frank Sr., who traveled through the segregated South as a bodyguard for Black pianist Don Shirley in the 1960s. Frank Jr. played the part of his uncle Rudy in the acclaimed movie.
“It just feels weird saying that he’s dead,” said his son Frank. “Deep down, he was really a kind-hearted person. When we found out, we were shocked.”
Frank Sr., once a bouncer at the Copacabana before an improbable acting career eventually landed him on “The Sopranos,” was known as “Tony Lip.”
Authorities arrested a man for leaving the corpse behind in the borough where Vallelonga was born, with the body found around 3:51 a.m. Monday.
“That dude was dead already,” said driver Steven Smith, behind the wheel of a car set for use in a John Travolta movie shooting in New Jersey. “He overdosed. I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
Smith, 35, was arrested a day later on an assortment of charges, including concealment of a human corpse and possession of a stolen vehicle, with authorities citing eyewitness and video surveillance evidence of his crime.
No other details in the death emerged, with the city medical examiner reporting toxicology tests could take some time to determine the cause.
Vallelonga also ran a New Jersey eatery named for his famous dad, “Tony Lip’s Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria,” until the pandemic forced him to close the doors.
“He had a good heart” his ex-wife said. “He was a generous guy. He helped a lot of people. He was a good father.”
She recalled how Vallelonga went to the Academy Awards on the night “Green Book” collected five Oscars, including best movie, best screenplay and best actor for Mahershala Ali.
Son Frank, who attended the award show with his dad, remembered his father as a “loud personality,” unafraid to speak out and always the living embodiment of the Bronx.
“He walked like he was the Bronx, talked like the Bronx,” said Frank. “He was a very likable person. He was a people person.”
Angela Vallelonga, who split with her husband two years ago, recalled her ex-spouse as a man full of life and fast to make friends.
“He talked to anybody, oh my God!” she said. “You couldn’t go out to dinner with him. He’d be talking to everybody in the restaurant. He liked to sing ... People loved him.”
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