“Green Book” actor Frank Vallelonga Jr. has been identified as the likely overdose victim whose body was found dumped in the Bronx, police said Thursday.
The 60-year-old actor’s corpse was discovered outside a sheet-metal manufacturing factory in Hunts Point early Monday after being tossed out of a vehicle, cops said.
His cause of his death is still being determined, but preliminary findings point to an overdose, law enforcement sources told The Post.
The actor is the namesake son of the Copacabana bouncer — known as “Tony Lip” — who was portrayed by Viggo Mortensen in the “Green Book” film, which tells the true story of the elder Vallelonga’s 1962 road trip through the segregated South with black pianist Don Shirley.
Vallelonga Jr. also starred in the Oscar-winning movie, playing the role of his uncle Rudy Vallelonga.
His corpse was discovered just before 4 a.m. Monday when a 911 caller reported finding the body outside the factory, police said.
A day after the grim discovery, police nabbed Steven Smith, 35, and charged him with concealment of a human corpse.
Smith was allegedly caught on surveillance video dumping Vallelonga Jr.’s body from the car, a police spokesman said.
The perp is said to have confessed while he was being interrogated on another case cops are investigating, the spokesman added. The details of the other case weren’t immediately known.
Vallelonga Jr.’s body showed no signs of obvious trauma and the medical examiner is still working to determine his official cause of death.
Prior to his death, a source said Vallelonga Jr. had been working in some capacity with his younger brother, filmmaker Nick Vallelonga, to produce a movie called “That’s Amore.”
Nick Vallelonga wrote the “Green Book” screenplay about their father’s Southern road trip, which went on to controversially win best picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.
Some critics slammed the Oscar win, claiming at the time that the film perpetuated white savior stereotypes.
Vallelonga Sr., whom “Green Book” was based on, went from doorman to actor later in life — playing Carmine Lupertazzi on “The Sopranos” when he was in his 70s.
Meanwhile, Vallelonga Jr.’s other acting credits included a handful of smaller roles, including an episode of “The Sopranos,” the 2018 TV series “The Neighborhood” and the “Gravesend” series in 2020.