Soldier Soldier star dies aged 61 as devastated colleagues pay tribute to ‘truest actor & good friend'
The actress - who also appeared in Xena: Warrior Princess and Shortland Street, and was a former Miss New Zealand - passed away on her birthday on Friday (June 6).
A post on her Facebook page said: "Marise passed peacefully today on her 61st birthday surrounded by family and friends.
"She just wanted to say....I have shuffled off this mortal coil. Good byyye, good luuuck, good God!!! Quote from Driving Miss Daisy."
A cause of death was not revealed.
Wipani played Ellie in season three of ITV drama Soldier, Soldier, which broadcast in 1993.
At its peak, the show saw an average viewership of 16.1 million, which coincided with Wipani's time in the cast.
The programme - created by Lucy Gannon - followed the daily lives of a group of soldiers in 'A' Company, 1st Battalion The King's Fusiliers, and also featured Robson Green and Jerome Flynn, running from 1991 to 1997.
Co-star Jay Laga'aia, who played Sgt. Bob Gilligan, was among those to pay tribute to Wipani, writing: "I saw this and quickly checked that it wasn't some kind of sick joke.
"Sister I am devastated to hear this news. You are so young and I will miss you. We have worked together over the years and I was always so pleased to have you on set. Travel well my sister, love you always."
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The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Sam Neill's 20 best roles – sorted!
Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: is there any role Sam Neill can't play? The New Zealand actor has been delivering cracking performances for more than four decades and, after returning to screens in Untamed and the third season of The Twelve, shows no signs of slowing down. Here are his 20 all-time greatest performances. This is the Neill performance that'll make you think: hot damn, he could've made a great James Bond. In this UK TV series he plays a Russian spy who works for the Brits; he is a devil with the ladies; and he scrubs up great in a tux: tick tick tick. The show is adapted from Robin Bruce Lockhart's 1967 book Ace of Spies, and its titular character based on Sidney Reilly, a real-life spy who was executed by the Soviets in 1925. It couldn't have been easy to hold your own against Sean Connery. But in John McTiernan's deep sea blockbuster, Neill delivers a thoroughly engrossing supporting performance as Vasily Borodin, the second-in-command to Connery's Capt Marko Ramius, a Soviet who defects to the US. Borodin is pragmatic and process-driven but embroiled in dangerously volatile circumstances. In this glamorous and racy series set in 16th-century England, Neill plays Henry VIII's most trusted adviser, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He's a man of the cloth, who clearly enjoys being referred to as 'your eminence', but is also a cunning and calculating powerbroker who doesn't like getting his hands dirty. Staying on the king's good side is easier said than done, as is surviving in this world; let's just say Wolsey doesn't appear in the second season. Everybody brings their A game to Warwick Thornton's sumptuously shot neo-western, one of the greatest Australian films of the century to date. Neill plays a preacher, Fred Smith, who's a little pious but walks the walk – following Bryan Brown's sergeant on his mission to track down an Aboriginal man accused of murder (Hamilton Morris) because 'I want to see him come back alive'. It's not a huge performance but it's beautifully balanced. Tender yet tough. Rob Sitch's pleasant historical drama is based on the true story of the Parkes Observatory, which helped Nasa track and broadcast Apollo 11's voyage to the moon. Neill plays Cliff, the observatory's mild-mannered but intensely focused director. It's a warm, fully rounded performance that takes an avuncular tone, complete with a face-stretching smile and pipe hanging from his mouth. Initially Neill's character in Jane Campion's Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece seems relatively fair-minded, playing the new husband of Holly Hunter's famously mute protagonist, Ada. That changes in the final act, when he violently responds to discovering Ada's love affair with a retired sailor (Harvey Keitel), tipping the film into nightmarish terrain. It's broodingly dark and poetic, and all the performances are great. The ol' vampire villain is given a modern, corporate makeover in the Spierig brothers' revisionist genre movie, in which Neill plays Charles Bromley, the chief executive of the largest supplier of blood in the US. In this world, most humans have become vamps, leading to a massive blood shortage that Bromley's determined to exploit. Neill gives him a monstrously large impact, with an air of menacing sophistication. In one memorable scene he elegantly quaffs a lovely glass of red – and no, it's not wine. In this classic Australian black comedy Neill plays Carl, a manchild who sleeps in late, rarely washes his clothes (he rarely washes anything) and lives in a grubby broken-down house. He does, however, scrub up pretty well in a black leather jacket. The plot kicks into gear when Carl – a two-bit chef at a dingy club – accidentally kills a drug dealer and sets off a gangland war. Neill makes him a little blase and aloof, and pitiable in some ways – but he is also his own worst enemy. An adult Damien Thorn is a role that could so easily have tipped into evil cartoonishness. But Neill is devilishly good in The Omen's second sequel, imbuing the protagonist with a disquietingly calm and serpentine presence. Thorn's smile stretches a little too wide, and something funny's going on with his eyes; he seems to look through people. The film can be a little goofy, stuffed to the gills with talk of prophecies and end times, but it builds a genuinely creepy psychological space. Gillian Armstrong's superb adaptation of Miles Franklin's classic feminist novel is centred around Judy Davis's great performance as the bull-headed protagonist Sybylla Melvyn, an aspiring author who dreams of something greater than a rural life as a wife. Her primary love interest is Neill's Harry Beecham: a man of the world with a polite, dignified way about him that takes on extra layers as the role deepens. Harry is swoon-worthy but Sybylla is no pushover, twice rejecting his hand in marriage. What a spunky wizard! Neill cuts a charismatic presence as the lead in this two-part miniseries about the mythic middle ages magician, giving the role dramatic weight but also leaning into the story's fairytale-like elements. The special effects of course have dated but the production holds up surprisingly well, with an appealingly old-timey spirit of adventure. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Critics have never been kind to Paul Anderson's gruesome sci-fi about a team of astronauts who land on a ship that haunts people with their deepest fears, but it's a cracking movie. Neill's role as the ship's designer, Dr William Weir, begins in geeky scientist mode but becomes a berserk reinvention of the mad scientist trope. 'Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see,' says Weir, around the time he literally opens the gates of hell. Good times. Cranked to 11? Dowsed in petrol, then set on fire? No string of words, however sensational, can capture the balls-to-the-wall spirit of Neill's ghoulish performance in Andrzej Żuławski's cult classic. Nor the qualities of the film itself – a bizarre combination of relationship drama and Grand Guignol spectacle. Neill plays Mark, a spy who returns home to West Berlin and discovers that his wife (Isabelle Adjani) wants a divorce; it might have something to do with a bedroom kink involving an tentacled alien. Neill has never been more huggable than in Jeremy Sims' remake of the Icelandic drama of the same name, in which he stars as Colin, a hardy and empathetic sheep farmer. He really, really loves his flock, though such affection does not extend to his crotchety brother Les (Michael Caton), who lives next door. The pair haven't spoken in years but that might change when a rare disease infects their animals. Titled A Cry in the Dark outside Australia and New Zealand, Fred Schepisi's drama about the trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain arrived in Australian cinemas with white-hot topicality, just six weeks after their convictions for murdering their daughter Azaria were quashed. Both lead performances are hauntingly powerful, with Neill starring opposite Meryl Streep as Michael, a holier-than-thou pastor who questions his faith when the trial puts them through the wringer. Cillian Murphy's gangster Tommy Shelby and his gang of 'Peaky Blinders' find themselves in an existential fight for survival when Neill's hotshot chief inspector Maj Campbell arrives in town, sent from Belfast to clean up the streets and retrieve stolen weapons. It's a deliciously entertaining performance with plenty of chest-thumping dialogue, and sizzling chemistry with Murphy. Who could forget Neill's palaeontologist, Dr Alan Grant, gawking at a Brachiosaurus while John Williamson's beautiful score swells? This moment from Jurassic Park demonstrates how special effects can evoke wonder, rather than just fill the frame with bling. There are a couple of other scientist characters in the Jurassic Park franchise but it was Grant who got his own film (Jurassic Park 3). For a large chunk of Phillip Noyce's white-knuckle thriller, Neill's navy officer John is alone on a sinking ship, with nobody to share the frame with or bounce off. It's a role that required emotional and physical intensity. The calm-under-fire John tries his darndest to stay alive and return to his wife (Nicole Kidman), who's alone on their yacht with a psychotic stranger (Billy Zane). The film is pacy as hell; there's a real electrical charge to it. Taika Waititi's beloved New Zealand comedy unforgettably paired on-the-run young delinquent Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) with Neill's cranky foster uncle Hector. Neill goes whole hog on the grumpy old man shtick – smoking, grunting and firing off fun lines like, 'You ever worked on a farm before, are you just ornamental?' The stoic Hector, who always looks as though he's had too much to drink, may not want our love, but by god, he got it. John Carpenter's sensationally loud and Lovecraftian horror movie features a brilliant, wall-rattling performance from Neill, who perfectly drives the human elements of this long under-appreciated film. He plays John Trent, an insurance investigator convinced that a mass hysteria event surrounding the release of a new horror novel is a PR trick. The hardened cynic who becomes a true believer is a classic trajectory, and our man runs with it to hell and back, the protagonist's sanity erupting like a burst blood vessel. So good.
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The Goonies star who went woke making unhinged rants online is seen on rare outing... can you guess who?
She is a veteran actress best known for her work in classic film The Goonies which was released in 1985. The actress who has had a career spanning nearly 45 years is a nepo baby as both her parents were thespians. More recently the star has created more buzz offscreen as she routinely posts unhinged rants on social media. She has been branded woke by the likes of Daily Mail's Maureen Callahan and several users on X (formally Twitter) for her takes on the Trump administration and issues like abortion. Now she has been seen on a rare outing in Los Angeles. Can you guess who the actress is? It's Martha Plimpton! The 54-year-old New York native was seen on a recent errand run in Southern California. She donned a sleeveless blue midi dress along with black flip flop sandals. Her signature blonde hair was cut into a pixy cut as it was elegantly dishevelled. Martha showcased her evergreen looks by going make-up free on the outing. The longtime actress has been blasted by several social media users for her rants online including one earlier this year where she celebrated Beyonce's Best Country Music Album win at the Grammy Awards in February by accusing the Trump administration of a coup. She posted a self-taken video with a lengthy caption which began: 'Don't get me wrong. I am PSYCHED about Beyonce winning #BestCountryAlbum tonight. F***ing Great! BUT. What. The. F***. We are in the midst of a #coup. 'Call your Senators and tell them to #SHUTDOWNTHESENATE and take a page from Mitch McConnell's playbook: OPPOSE ALL NOMINEES, REJECT UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUESTS, VOTE NO ON ALL CLOTURE AND PROCEDURAL VOTES, AND REQUEST QUORUM CALLS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.. USE EVERY PROCEDURAL MANEUVER TO GRIND EVERYTHING TO A STOP. This is no joke.' An X user reposted her Instagram and wrote: 'Staunch liberal accounts like Martha Plimpton are suddenly sounding like the left 10 years ago: "Why is the media complicit in this?" "Where the F are the Democrats as all of this is going down??" You mocked us for catching on long before you, Marf. Shrug. 'And of course - she somehow feels obligated to mention that Beyonce won a Grammy in the midst of all this because: liberal. Can't stop. Won't stop.' Martha has also been a passionate abortion advocate over the years as she famously has 'I [heart] Abortion.' on her Instagram bio. On July 4, 2024 she even posted a meme which read: 'little known fact" The "A" in America stands for "Abortion."' Even her followers took issue with the post in the comments section as one wrote: '"I love abortion" pretty insensitive comment. since to many it is a the most important and sometimes traumatic decision a woman may make in her life.' Another said: 'I'm pro life.. Love that a child that was conceived gets a chance to live, but I would never force any woman to have a child if she chose not to, but I would try to convince her to have the child and if she didn't want to raise the child to give it up fir adoption to a family that would raise it.. I mean hey yourmotger had you, have you a chance to live.. I bet your happy about that!!' Back in 2018, Martha caused an uproar over the comments she made at a #ShoutYourAbortion event which circulated online at the time. Addressing a crowd of supporters, Plimpton, who has spoken publicly of the two abortions she had as a young woman in the past, said at town hall session: 'Seattle has some particular significance for me for lots of reasons. An X user reposted her Instagram and wrote: 'Staunch liberal accounts like Martha Plimpton are suddenly sounding like the left 10 years ago: "Why is the media complicit in this?" "Where the F are the Democrats as all of this is going down??" You mocked us for catching on long before you, Marf. Shrug 'I've got a lot of family here, some of whom are here in the audience tonight. 'I also had my first abortion here at the Seattle Planned Parenthood! Yay!' As the audience cheered, she went on: 'Notice I said 'first'...and I don't want Seattle — I don't want you guys to feel insecure, it was my best one. 'Heads and tails above the rest. If I could Yelp review it, I totally would. 'And if that doctor's here tonight, I don't remember you at all, I was 19. I was 19, but I thank you nonetheless,' she said, as the crowd cheered. 'You probably won't remember because I wasn't that famous then,' she concluded, jokingly. As Plimpton revealed her abortion at the event in June 2018, the pro-choice audience which had gathered to hear her embraced her honesty and cheered her on. But the starlet, who has also appeared in The Good Wife, received a frostier reaction online. Pro-life internet users were outraged by her comments in Seattle and slammed them as 'tacky' and 'abysmal' online. 'How can you be proud of this?' asked one critic. Others said the actress's remarks were 'disgusting' and 'disturbing'. Another said: 'It's one thing to be pro-choice but a sad thing to brag about your abortion shame on u.' Plimpton dated actor River Phoenix for years in the late 80s and early 90s. They are seen at the 1989 Oscars when she was 18. River died in 1993 of a drug overdose One likened her comments to a 'total disregard for human life'. Plimpton has spoken in the past about having two abortions when she was a young actress. 'For me in particular, because I did have two abortions as a young woman, I feel that my ability to access that kind of medical care made it possible for me to live out my dreams and do what I really want to do in life,' she told ABC in 2015. In 1989, the year she turned 19, she was in a relationship with actor River Phoenix. The pair appeared together in films including Running On Empty and they stayed together for several years before Phoenix's death in 1993 from a cocaine and heroin overdose. The younger brother of actor Joaquin, River had been watching Johnny Depp's band at The Viper Room when he died outside. Plimpton did not mention him or make reference to who her unborn baby's father was when she addressed her abortion in June. #ShoutYourAbortion, the organization which hosted the event where she made the comments, encourages women who have undergone abortions to talk about them in order to remove the stigma many attach to the procedure. The campaign manufactures t-shirts emblazoned with the words 'abortion is freedom' and 'everyone knows I had an abortion'. Plimpton previously promoted another of its garments - a shift dress with the word printed across it in bold, black lettering. The star was 15 when she appeared in the 1985 classic The Goonies. She has since gone on to appear in an array of films and movies including Raising Hope and Parenthood. Plimpton grew up engulfed in showbiz. Her grandfather was John Carradine and both her parents (Keith Carradine and Shelley Plimpton) are actors. She began dating Phoenix in the late 80s after starring with him in the film Running On Empty. She is also on the board of directors of A is For, a charity which seeks to advance 'women's reproductive rights and end the stigma on abortion care'. Since launching in 2015 with one woman's Facebook post, #ShoutYourAbortion has gathered thousands of supporters around the world.
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- The Guardian
Sam Neill's 20 best roles – sorted!
Scientists, farmers, spies, cops, priests, the devil incarnate: is there any role Sam Neill can't play? The New Zealand actor has been delivering cracking performances for more than four decades and, after returning to screens in Untamed and the third season of The Twelve, shows no signs of slowing down. Here are his 20 all-time greatest performances. This is the Neill performance that'll make you think: hot damn, he could've made a great James Bond. In this UK TV series he plays a Russian spy who works for the Brits; he is a devil with the ladies; and he scrubs up great in a tux: tick tick tick. The show is adapted from Robin Bruce Lockhart's 1967 book Ace of Spies, and its titular character based on Sidney Reilly, a real-life spy who was executed by the Soviets in 1925. It couldn't have been easy to hold your own against Sean Connery. But in John McTiernan's deep sea blockbuster, Neill delivers a thoroughly engrossing supporting performance as Vasily Borodin, the second-in-command to Connery's Capt Marko Ramius, a Soviet who defects to the US. Borodin is pragmatic and process-driven but embroiled in dangerously volatile circumstances. In this glamorous and racy series set in 16th-century England, Neill plays Henry VIII's most trusted adviser, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He's a man of the cloth, who clearly enjoys being referred to as 'your eminence', but is also a cunning and calculating powerbroker who doesn't like getting his hands dirty. Staying on the king's good side is easier said than done, as is surviving in this world; let's just say Wolsey doesn't appear in the second season. Everybody brings their A game to Warwick Thornton's sumptuously shot neo-western, one of the greatest Australian films of the century to date. Neill plays a preacher, Fred Smith, who's a little pious but walks the walk – following Bryan Brown's sergeant on his mission to track down an Aboriginal man accused of murder (Hamilton Morris) because 'I want to see him come back alive'. It's not a huge performance but it's beautifully balanced. Tender yet tough. Rob Sitch's pleasant historical drama is based on the true story of the Parkes Observatory, which helped Nasa track and broadcast Apollo 11's voyage to the moon. Neill plays Cliff, the observatory's mild-mannered but intensely focused director. It's a warm, fully rounded performance that takes an avuncular tone, complete with a face-stretching smile and pipe hanging from his mouth. Initially Neill's character in Jane Campion's Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece seems relatively fair-minded, playing the new husband of Holly Hunter's famously mute protagonist, Ada. That changes in the final act, when he violently responds to discovering Ada's love affair with a retired sailor (Harvey Keitel), tipping the film into nightmarish terrain. It's broodingly dark and poetic, and all the performances are great. The ol' vampire villain is given a modern, corporate makeover in the Spierig brothers' revisionist genre movie, in which Neill plays Charles Bromley, the chief executive of the largest supplier of blood in the US. In this world, most humans have become vamps, leading to a massive blood shortage that Bromley's determined to exploit. Neill gives him a monstrously large impact, with an air of menacing sophistication. In one memorable scene he elegantly quaffs a lovely glass of red – and no, it's not wine. In this classic Australian black comedy Neill plays Carl, a manchild who sleeps in late, rarely washes his clothes (he rarely washes anything) and lives in a grubby broken-down house. He does, however, scrub up pretty well in a black leather jacket. The plot kicks into gear when Carl – a two-bit chef at a dingy club – accidentally kills a drug dealer and sets off a gangland war. Neill makes him a little blase and aloof, and pitiable in some ways – but he is also his own worst enemy. An adult Damien Thorn is a role that could so easily have tipped into evil cartoonishness. But Neill is devilishly good in The Omen's second sequel, imbuing the protagonist with a disquietingly calm and serpentine presence. Thorn's smile stretches a little too wide, and something funny's going on with his eyes; he seems to look through people. The film can be a little goofy, stuffed to the gills with talk of prophecies and end times, but it builds a genuinely creepy psychological space. Gillian Armstrong's superb adaptation of Miles Franklin's classic feminist novel is centred around Judy Davis's great performance as the bull-headed protagonist Sybylla Melvyn, an aspiring author who dreams of something greater than a rural life as a wife. Her primary love interest is Neill's Harry Beecham: a man of the world with a polite, dignified way about him that takes on extra layers as the role deepens. Harry is swoon-worthy but Sybylla is no pushover, twice rejecting his hand in marriage. What a spunky wizard! Neill cuts a charismatic presence as the lead in this two-part miniseries about the mythic middle ages magician, giving the role dramatic weight but also leaning into the story's fairytale-like elements. The special effects of course have dated but the production holds up surprisingly well, with an appealingly old-timey spirit of adventure. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Critics have never been kind to Paul Anderson's gruesome sci-fi about a team of astronauts who land on a ship that haunts people with their deepest fears but it's a cracking movie. Neill's role as the ship's designer, Dr William Weir, begins in geeky scientist mode but becomes a berserk reinvention of the mad scientist trope. 'Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see,' says Weir, around the time he literally opens the gates of hell. Good times. Cranked to 11? Dowsed in petrol, then set on fire? No string of words, however sensational, can capture the balls-to-the-wall spirit of Neill's ghoulish performance in Andrzej Żuławski's cult classic. Nor the qualities of the film itself – a bizarre combination of relationship drama and Grand Guignol spectacle. Neill plays Mark, a spy who returns home to West Berlin and discovers that his wife (Isabelle Adjani) wants a divorce; it might have something to do with a bedroom kink involving an tentacled alien. Neill has never been more huggable than in Jeremy Sims' remake of the Icelandic drama of the same name, in which he stars as Colin, a hardy and empathetic sheep farmer. He really, really loves his flock, though such affection does not extend to his crotchety brother Les (Michael Caton), who lives next door. The pair haven't spoken in years but that might change when a rare disease infects their animals. Titled A Cry in the Dark outside Australia and New Zealand, Fred Schepisi's drama about the trial of Lindy and Michael Chamberlain arrived in Australian cinemas with white-hot topicality, just six weeks after their convictions for murdering their daughter Azaria were quashed. Both lead performances are hauntingly powerful, with Neill starring opposite Meryl Streep as Michael, a holier-than-thou pastor who questions his faith when the trial puts them through the wringer. Cillian Murphy's gangster Tommy Shelby and his gang of 'Peaky Blinders' find themselves in an existential fight for survival when Neill's hotshot chief inspector Maj Campbell arrives in town, sent from Belfast to clean up the streets and retrieve stolen weapons. It's a deliciously entertaining performance with plenty of chest-thumping dialogue, and sizzling chemistry with Murphy. Who could forget Neill's palaeontologist, Dr Alan Grant, gawking at a Brachiosaurus while John Williamson's beautiful score swells? This moment from Jurassic Park demonstrates how special effects can evoke wonder, rather than just fill the frame with bling. There are a couple of other scientist characters in the Jurassic Park franchise but it was Grant who got his own film (Jurassic Park 3). For a large chunk of Phillip Noyce's white-knuckle thriller, Neill's navy officer John is alone on a sinking ship, with nobody to share the frame with or bounce off. It's a role that required emotional and physical intensity. The calm-under-fire John tries his darndest to stay alive and return to his wife (Nicole Kidman), who's alone on their yacht with a psychotic stranger (Billy Zane). The film is pacy as hell; there's a real electrical charge to it. Taika Waititi's beloved New Zealand comedy unforgettably paired on-the-run young delinquent Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison) with Neill's cranky foster uncle Hector. Neill goes whole hog on the grumpy old man shtick – smoking, grunting and firing off fun lines like, 'You ever worked on a farm before, are you just ornamental?' The stoic Hector, who always looks as though he's had too much to drink, may not want our love, but by god, he got it. John Carpenter's sensationally loud and Lovecraftian horror movie features a brilliant, wall-rattling performance from Neill, who perfectly drives the human elements of this long under-appreciated film. He plays John Trent, an insurance investigator convinced that a mass hysteria event surrounding the release of a new horror novel is a PR trick. The hardened cynic who becomes a true believer is a classic trajectory, and our man runs with it to hell and back, the protagonist's sanity erupting like a burst blood vessel. So good.
