Tony Lip (Carmine Lupertazzi) 1930-2013

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PARAMUS – Actor Tony Lip, known for his mob roles on television’s “The Sopranos,” and in films “Donnie Brasco,” “Goodfellas” and “The Godfather,” died Friday at a hospital in Teaneck, the family said. The Paramus resident, who was 82, had been in poor health for several years.

Lip, born in Beaver Falls, Pa., and whose real name is Frank Anthony Vallelonga, was raised in the Bronx, where his parents, Nicholas and Nazarena moved when their son was a few weeks old.

Life on 215th Street in the Bronx was “interesting,” Lip would often say – especially since his parents moved in to a neighborhood near late mob boss John Gotti’s boyhood home.

Years before Lip rose to prominence as mob kingpin Carmine Lupertazzi in the HBO cable show “The Sopranos,” the actor worked in the 1960s at the famed Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. He rose to general manager, rubbing shoulders with singers from Bobby Darin to Nat King Cole.

“Tony Lip broke bread with everyone from Dean Martin to Frank Sinatra,” said fellow actor Danny Aiello, who met Lip when they both started acting in the 1970s. “Tony was a good storyteller … he could tell you stories about everyone who came into the Copacabana.”

Perhaps it’s why Lip — a devoted family man, who along with his wife Dolores, raised two sons at their modest family home in Paramus *— was able to develop a tough guy demeanor and share great stories that led to an acting career.

“That all came from the Copacabana before he became an actor,” said Aiello, who wrote the forword to Lip’s co-authored celebrity cookbook, “Shut Up And Eat!” in 2005 and attended Lip’s 80th birthday party at Portobello restaurant in Oakland just over two years ago.

“Whenever we did see each other, we had one thing in common,” Aiello said. “We loved each other. I had never met two nicer people in my life than Tony and his wife. She was a gem and when he lost her, it was the most devastating for him because they were inseparable. In a business where so many relationships are fleeting, ours sustained. I will miss him terribly. He was a damn good actor.”

Lip said at his 80th birthday party in August 2010 that people craved hearing about the celebrities he met while working at the Copa *— especially if they were gangsters or touched by scandal. The stories are kept alive, Lip said at the time, by his sons Frank and Nick.

“People are sometimes more fascinated by my years working at the Copacabana,” Lip said at the party.

And then there were the names of his Bronx pals when he was a kid and young adult – guys like Joe “Nose,” Frankie “Lock” and Vito “Crabs,” who had a scratching problem. Tony earned the name “Lip” when he was 8-years-old because he was persuasive and could outtalk anyone.

Lip’s wife, Dolores, who died in 1999, did not know his name was Frank until the couple wrote out their wedding invitations in 1958.

An avid swimmer, bowler, and dancer with local championships under his belt, Lip left high school at 16, played minor league ball in North Carolina with the St. Louis Browns organization, then served in the Army from 1951 to 1953 in Germany.

When he got out of the service, he was the hairdresser for a line of leggy stars – the Rockettes. The G.I Bill paid the most for hairdresser school, so Lip signed up.

In his 20s he also worked with the New York Department of Sanitation, then as a bartender, and eventually a restaurateur and pool-hall owner. One job had him tossing people as a bouncer at The Wagon Wheel nightclub and the famed Peppermint Lounge in New York.

But it was at the Copa that he met director Francis Ford Coppola and casting director Louis DiGiamo, who were drawn to Lip’s personality.

Actor Vincent Curatola, currently in the film “Killing Them Softly,” with James Gandolfini and Brad Pitt, played the underboss to Lip’s New York organized crime kingpin role in “The Sopranos.”

“Tony was a great raconteur,” Curatola said of their talks between takes. “Especially his stories of growing up in the Bronx.”

It was an asset to getting the role on “The Sopranos” – a part given to him with the blessing of the show’s creator, David Chase.

“If he wasn’t a good actor David Chase wouldn’t have had him,” Curatola said. “We’ll all miss Tony.”

Lip is survived by a brother, Rudy Vallelonga of Bethpage, N.Y.; two sons, Nick Vallelonga of Studio City, Ca., and Frank Vallelonga Jr., of Franklin Lakes, N.J.; and a grandson.

Visitation is from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at Santangelo Funeral Home, 300 N. Main St., Lodi. A funeral Mass will at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church, 787 Franklin Lake Road, Franklin Lakes. Burial will be at Maryrest Cemetery in Mahwah..