NEW YORK — An overdose victim whose corpse was dumped on a Bronx sidewalk was identified Thursday as the son of a onetime Copacabana bouncer played by Viggo Mortensen in the Oscar-winning movie “Green Book.”
Frank Vallelonga Jr., 60, was the son of the late Frank Vallelonga Sr., known as “Tony Lip,” who famously accompanied Black pianist Don Shirley as a bodyguard during a tour through the deep South in the early 1960s before an unlikely transformation from doorman to actor — and a recurring role on “The Sopranos.”
The suspect arrested for allegedly leaving the lifeless body behind apparently loaded the body into a vehicle belonging to the victim’s Academy Award-winning brother for the Nov. 29 ride to his final resting place, a criminal complaint alleged.
