Walk past a movie being made on the streets of NYC, and you invariably come upon period-appropriate cars that are as done up — or done down — as the stars themselves.  “Except for buildings and clothing, there are not a lot of ways to telegraph an era. Vintage cars take you back like few other things do,” said Jamie Kitman, one of the local  collectors and professional car-wranglers who rent their autos for films. Here are five showbiz auto buffs — some of whom actually drive on camera — and their A-list whips.

Featured in “The Post”, “A Bronx Tale,” “A Beautiful Mind”

Checker Cabs run in Victor Coiro’s blood. His uncle owned and drove a city cab. But Coiro and his Checker hustle gigs instead of fares. His 1978 ride has transported Martin Scorsese for a British scotch commercial and Ellen DeGeneres once handled it recklessly as a gag for her show: “She drove on the curb and I yelled, ‘Hey, you’re gonna bend the rim!’ ” the 59-year-old recalled.

Coiro, who is semi-retired from owning an electronics store and resides on Staten Island, rescued this taxi from a taco joint in Florida, where it was painted white and sat out front as a promotional piece. He paid $2,000 for the vehicle in 1989 and spent another $25,000 restoring it. The car’s first role was in “Sleepers.” And it helped Coiro himself land a bit part in 2017’s “The Post,” where he drives Meryl Streep’s character to the Plaza Hotel. (He earned $175 on top of the “few hundred dollars” rental fee for the car.)

“[Streep] got in, complimented me on the cab and asked if I was in SAG, which I am; then she went back into character.”

While waiting curbside for directors to yell “Action!” he’s heard more curious comments: “Kids tend to ask me if this is what the new cabs will look like.”

Featured in “The Many Saints of Newark”, “Godfather of Harlem”

Maya Frank’s prized Imperial was used during the fall of 2018 in the much-anticipated “Sopranos” prequel movie, “The Many Saints of Newark,” which is slated for a September release.

“I was looking online for 1960s cars that could be rented out for movies and fell in love with the look of this one,” said the 49-year-old Long Islander of buying the car for $4,000.  The Imperial was in such poor shape that Frank, an actor and stunt driver, replaced “pretty much every mechanical thing” in it.

Still, it’s not exactly a car you would take out for a Sunday jaunt. On one occasion, while traveling to the “Saints” set, the engine caught fire. Another time, going from a “Saints” set in The Bronx to one in Paterson, NJ, the brakes gave out. “I drove with the emergency brake!” said Frank, who plays background roles in the movie, for which she and the car earned $400 to $1,000 per day.

Featured in “Things Heard & Seen” (pictured), “The Black List”

In late 2019, David Cohen received a call from Picture Car Services, a company that supplies vehicles for movies, looking for a pair of matching, late 1970s Saabs with automatic transmissions, for the upcoming Amanda Seyfried movie “Things Heard & Seen” for Netflix. But he had bad news: “Those cars are extremely rare and will never be found.”

The 50-year-old Bronx resident, with his Lost Soul Film Cars partner Matt  Messano, owns some 300 autos, kept in North Jersey, but none fit the bill. He did, however, have a burgundy 1979 Peugeot. “It’s the same genre car,” he told The Post. “Distinctly foreign and quirky.” Though he only had one, Cohen spotted a matching model, albeit in a different shade, on eBay. “Picture Cars bought that one and I painted mine to match.”

Cohen won’t say how much he was paid but the former EMT worker will reap emotional coin while watching the flick. “I love seeing my cars in the movies,” he said. “You leave a small mark on society and a record of having done something.”

Both featured in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”

Bringing a single car to a TV or film set can be challenging. For an episode of Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Dave Evans, 63, had two — a 1960 Studebaker station wagon and a 1958 Dodge Coronet Lancer — dressing a shot that showed Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub) on a Queens street.

Evans, a retired shop teacher in Masapequa, LI, used to collect autos for fun. But in 1982, a set decorator spotted a 1959 Nash Metropolitan and a 1957 DeSoto Firesweep in his driveway — those cars wound up in the  movie “The Flamingo Kid.” Now Evans has a dozen vintage rides he rents out for filming.

He doubled as a kind of choreographer on the “Maisel” set. “You get told to move a car back six inches, move it seven inches to the side, turn it around,” he said. Vintage cars add complications: “Skinny tires, non-power brakes and steering, light switches that are hard to find . . . Many actors  in Manhattan don’t own cars. [They can’t be expected to] deal with vehicles older than they are.”

Featured in “Fosse/Verdon”, “Pan Am,” “The Americans”

Six years ago, Jamie Kitman, now 63 and living near Nyack, NY, convinced his mechanic to sell him a 1968 Lancia Fulvia Berlina 2C.

“I had no realization of how good it would be for movies,” he told The Post. “I just wanted it to drive.”

He ended up turning it into a replica of a Madrid taxi when a prop master on the FX miniseries “Fosse/Verdon” reached out. “Those cars are normally gray with cream-colored panels,” said Kitman (below left), who owns Octane Film Cars and sometimes works with his son Ike (beloe right). “We had the body partially wrapped for the cream. Digital decals and taxi lights were put on.”

Kitman enjoys seeing his cars on the screen — “I watch and go, ‘That’s MINE! That’s MINE!’ ”