Peter Greene's most infamous role
Peter Greene as Zed, with the Gimp — film still from Pulp Fiction (1994, Miramax/A Band Apart)
Zed, played by Peter Greene, is the sadistic pawn-shop owner in Pulp Fiction who, with Maynard, captures and assaults Marsellus Wallace. Butch kills Maynard with a katana and frees Marsellus, who shoots Zed and vows to “get medieval.” Butch later escapes on Zed's chopper — “Zed's dead, baby.”
It's one of the most notorious scenes in 1990s cinema. In the pawn-shop sequence, boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) and crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) are captured by Maynard and his brother Zed — a security guard played by Peter Greene — who intend to assault them.
Butch breaks free, knocks out “the Gimp,” and reaches the door — then goes back for Marsellus with a katana, killing Maynard. Marsellus grabs a shotgun, shoots Zed, and promises to “get medieval on your ass.”
The payoff comes later: Butch rides off on a chopper named “Grace,” telling his girlfriend it was Zed's — “Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead.” The line has become shorthand for the whole grim, redemptive episode.
And the Gimp? The silent, leather-clad figure Maynard and Zed keep chained in the basement is credited only as “the Gimp.” When Butch and Marsellus are tied up, the Gimp is brought out to guard Butch — and it's the Gimp that Butch knocks out cold to begin his escape. The part was played by Stephen Hibbert, a Groundlings comedian who, at the very same time in 1994, was writing for the children's cartoons Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs.
Quentin Tarantino later filled in the character's grim backstory. In a 2020 interview he said the Gimp was someone Maynard and Zed had abducted years before — “like a hitchhiker” they “picked up seven years ago” and trained into “the perfect victim.” As for the Gimp's fate after Butch's knockout blow, Tarantino was blunt: the Gimp is dead — chained by the neck, he hangs himself when he slumps unconscious.
Who played Zed in Pulp Fiction?
The actor Peter Greene — not the Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.
What does “Zed's dead, baby” mean?
Butch says it after escaping on Zed's motorcycle; it signals that Zed has been dealt with and Butch's violent ordeal is over.
Who played the Gimp in Pulp Fiction?
Stephen Hibbert, a comedian from the Groundlings troupe who was also writing for Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs at the time.
What happened to the Gimp?
Butch knocks him out to escape. Tarantino later said the character dies — chained by the neck, the Gimp hangs when he slumps unconscious.
Sources: Pulp Fiction, Wikipedia · Collider — who is the Gimp? · Rolling Stone — the Gimp scene