Beloved New Zealand TV personality Marise Wipani passed away on June 6, which marked her 61st birthday.
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Her death was announced in a post on her Facebook account. “Marise passed peacefully today on her 61st birthday surrounded by family and friends,” the post reads. “She just wanted to say… I have shuffled off this mortal coil. Good byyye, good luuuuck, good God!!!!”
The quote was from the 1989 film Driving Miss Daisy.
According to E! News, Marise Wipani first hit the spotlight as a Miss New Zealand pageant contestant in 1983. She placed runner-up in the competition.
Following her pageant days, Wipani went into acting, appearing as various characters on The Billy T. James Show. She made her feature film debut in 1985’s Came a Hot Friday. She appeared in other films, including Grevious Bodily Harm, Bonjour Timothy, and the TV movie Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur.
Wipani also appeared as Janista in the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Kanae in the Hercules spin-off Xena: Warrior Princess.
After appearing on Shortland Street in 2008, Wipani stepped back from her acting career. She told The New Zealand Times in 2011 that she went on to work at a local cafe. She regretted how she managed her finances earlier in her acting career.
“I wish I was rich,” she also explained at the time. And I wish I’d listened when people told me to save my money. But I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and then didn’t do anything.”
“It’s been fun,” she then added.
Wipani’s cause of death was not revealed.
Marise Wipani Says She ‘Dodged a Bullet’ Decades After Placing Runner-Up in Miss New Zealand
Also during the 2011 interview with The New Zealand Herald, Marise Wipani opened up about placing runner-up in the 1983 Miss New Zealand pageant.
“It would have been my worst nightmare,” she predicted had she won. “I dodged a bullet… Seriously, it’s just not my cup of tea.”
The winner, Lorraine Downes, went on to win that year’s Miss Universe competition.