Actress Gena Rowlands, whose career in the Hollywood film industry spanned more than six decades, died Wednesday at the age of 94. Nominated for Oscars for her vivid portrayals of strong, tormented women in the crime dramas A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), both directed by her ex-husband John Cassavetes, she played a woman with Alzheimer’s in “The Notebook,” a disease she herself suffered from.
Gena Rowlands, in 1995.
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Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes, in 1984.
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Her son, film director Nick Casavetes, revealed last June that his mother suffered from Alzheimer’s in an interview with Weekly Entertainment in which he reviewed their work together on the filming of The Notebook, a film in which Rowland played a woman with Alzheimer’s. “She’s in the midst of dementia. And it’s crazy: we lived through it, she played it, and now it’s on us,” her son said at the time.
In that film, which marks two decades since its release on the big screen, the actress played Allie, the more adult version of the same character played by Rachel McAdams. Cassavetes’ grandmother, actress Lady Rowlands, also suffered from Alzheimer’s and her struggle inspired Gena to play Allie in the film, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Gena Rowlands, in Los Angeles in 1957.
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Known for her collaborations with her late husband, actor and director John Cassavetes, on 10 films, the American actress has been honored in her more than six-decade career with four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes.
Rowlands and John Cassavetes were the golden couple of independent cinema in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Cassavetes was a pioneer of reality cinema and Rowlands was his muse.
“Independent cinema existed before Cassavetes, but Cassavetes, working with Rowlands, managed to make an independent cinema that borrowed from Hollywood, not in plots or styles, but in acting appeal and dramatic power,” wrote a New Yorker article in 2016.
Gena Rowlands, in a file image.
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The tall, blonde actress made 10 films with Cassavetes before his death in 1989, including the 1977 psychological drama Opening Night, the 1968 marriage saga Faces and 1984’s Currents of Love. In A Woman Under the Influence, which Cassavetes originally wrote as a play and is considered one of her finest performances, Rowlands played Mabel Longhetti, a housewife struggling with mental illness. As the tough, determined protagonist of Cassavetes’ 1980 film “Gloria,” she rescued and protected an orphaned boy from mobsters bent on killing him.
Honorary Oscar
Although she did not win an Oscar for either role, Rowlands did receive an Academy Honorary Award in 2015.
Virginia Cathryn “Gena” Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father was a banker and politician, and her mother was an actress. After college, she moved to New York City, where she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and met fellow actor John Cassavetes.
“I always wanted to be an actress; I read a lot when I was little, and that showed me that there were other things to do. You can live many lives and have a lot of fun and see many things,” she told The New York Times in 2016.
She won best actress Emmys for 1987’s The Betty Ford Story and the 1992 drama The Face of a Stranger and took home the trophy for best supporting actress in a miniseries or movie for 2002’s Hysterical Blindness. An independent film icon, she found a new audience when she returned to the big screen in 2004 as the older version of actress Rachel McAdams’ character in The Notebook.
Rowlands was married to Cassavetes from 1954 until his death. They had three children. In 2012, she married businessman Robert Forrest.
Her last feature film role was in ‘Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks’ (2014) co-starring Cheyenne Jackson. Rowlands died at her home in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by her family, confirmed the office of her son’s agent, film director Nick Casavetes, according to the specialist newspaper Variety.
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