Actor Frank Anthony Vallelonga, better known as Tony Lip, died in a New Jersey hospital in 2013, family members confirmed to the Record (via the Los Angeles Times). He was 82.
Vallelonga made a career out of playing mobster types, portraying the head of a crime family on numerous occasions. According to his son, there was a point where he began using his stage name in his personal life, too. "Even my mother, Dolores, didn't know his name was Frank until they had to make up their wedding invitations back in 1958," he once said. His career as a character actor began with an uncredited appearance in "The Godfather" (he shows up as a wedding guest in Francis Ford Coppola's Mafia classic) and he would later pop up in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and Mike Newell's "Donnie Brasco" before landing a role on "The Sopranos." He portrayed Carmine Lupertazzi, head of the Lupertazzi family, until his death.
The actor served in the Army before his career in Hollywood. He later worked at the Copacabana club in Manhattan, where, according to the Times, he "met numerous celebrities of the era, including singers Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat 'King' Cole and Bobby Darin, as well as the kind of gangsters he would later portray."
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