This article was originally published in English
The multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee was known for her portrayals of strong women. She was often directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, and became known to a new generation of moviegoers with her son’s film, “The Notebook.”
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Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actresses of all time and as one of the most prominent figures in independent cinema who starred in pioneering films by her husband, director John Cassavetes, and later captivated audiences in the tearjerker The Notebook, a film directed by her son, has died. She was 94.
Rowlands’ death was confirmed by representatives of her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. Cassavetes revealed earlier this year that his mother suffered from Alzheimer’s. TMZ reported that Rowlands died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, California.
Rowlands was born in Wisconsin in June 1930. After college she moved to New York, where she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. “I always wanted to be an actress; “I read a lot when I was little, and it showed me that there were other things to be,” she told The New York Times in 2016.
It was at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts that she met her husband, a fellow student. In 1960, Cassavetes He used his earnings from the Johnny Stacatto television series to finance his first film, Shadows. Partly improvised, shot with natural light on location in New York on a budget of $40,000, it was praised by critics for its gritty realism.
Together with her husband she created indelible portraits of the working class
Outside the studio system, the marriage formed by John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of the working class and smallholders in films like ‘A Woman Under the Influence’.
Rowlands He made 10 films over four decades with Cassavetesincluding ‘Minnie and Moskowitz’ in 1971, ‘Opening Night’ in 1977 and ‘Love Streams’ in 1984.
For two of them it was Oscar nominated: ‘A Woman Under the Influence’, from 1974, in which she played a wife and mother who breaks down under the weight of domestic harmony, and ‘Gloria’, from 1980, about a woman who helps a young man escape from the mob.
In addition to the Oscar nominations, Rowlands received three Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy and two Golden Globes. She was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood. “You know what’s great about being an actress? You don’t live just one life“he said at the podium. “You live many lives.”
John Cassavetes died of cirrhosis hepatic in 1989, and Rowlands returned to acting to ease her griefBetween assignments, I sometimes went to film festivals and societies for Cassavetes screenings.
“I want everyone to see his films,” he said at the San Sebastian Film Festival 1992. “John was unique, the most fearless person I have ever met. He had a very specific view of life and the individuality of people.”
A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in her son’s blockbuster The Notebook, in which she played a woman whose memory is devastatedremembering a romance for eternity. Her younger self was played by Rachel McAdams.
In his later years, Rowlands made several film and television appearances, including in The Skeleton Key and the detective series Monk. Last appearance in a film was in 2014playing a retiree who befriends her gay dance teacher in ‘Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.’
Among his long list of credits in the Seventh Art highlights include ‘Lonely Are the Brave’ with Kirk Douglas, ‘The Spiral Road’ (Rock Hudson), ‘A Child Is Waiting’ (with Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland, directed by Cassavetes), ‘Two Minute Warning’ (Charlton Heston), ‘Tempest’ (co-starring Cassavetes and Molly Ringwald, in her screen debut) and the mother who wants to do right by her children in Paul Schrader’s 1987 study of a working-class family ‘Light of Day’.
