Marise Wipani, 1964 – 2025

New Zealand-born actress Marise Wipani died on her 61st birthday, on June 6. The beauty-pageant winner first came to notice as New Zealand’s “Lotto Girl,” and on TV’s Billy T. James Show. From the 1980s through the ’90s, Wipani appeared on TV (Xena: Warrior Princess, Rafferty’s Rules, Soldier Soldier, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, One West Waikiki, Rude Awakenings, Shortland Street) and in movies (Came a Hot Friday, Grievous Bodily Harm, Bonjour Timothy, Jubilee), in New Zealand and the US and UK. In later years, Wipani worked in a café. Mixing Shakespeare and Driving Miss Daisy, her family posted, "She just wanted to say ... ‘I have shuffled off this mortal coil. Good bye, good luck, good God!!!!’"