Gena Rowlands, considered one of the greatest actresses of all time and a shining example of independent cinema, has died. She was 94 years old.
Rowlands was a star in the groundbreaking films of her husband, director John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son’s sentimental crime thriller The Notebook.
Rowlands’ death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, who revealed earlier this year that his mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. TMZ reported that Rowlands died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, California.
Outside the studio system, husband-and-wife team John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and little people in films such as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.”
Rowlands made ten films with Cassavetes over four decades, including Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977) and Love Streams (1984).
She received an Oscar nomination for two of these films: “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), in which she played a wife and mother who collapses under the burden of domestic harmony, and “Gloria” (1980), about a woman who helps a young boy escape the mafia.
“He had a special, compassionate interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame their problems. That’s why there are interesting women in all his films, and you don’t need many of them,” she told AP in 2015.
In addition to the Oscar nominations, Rowlands has received three Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, and two Golden Globes. In 2015, she received an honorary Oscar in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood.
“You know what’s wonderful about being an actress? You don’t just live one life,” she said at the podium. “You live many lives.”
Rowlands was introduced to a new generation in her son’s blockbuster The Notebook, in which she played a woman whose memory is shattered and who looks back on a romance for the ages. Her younger self was played by Rachel McAdams. She also appeared in Nick Cassavetes’ Unhook the Stars in 1996.
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In her later years, Rowlands made several appearances in films and on television, including in “The Skeleton Key” and the crime series “Monk.” Her last film appearance was in 2014, when she played a pensioner who befriends her gay dance instructor in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.”
One of her career triumphs was in 1974’s “Woman Under the Influence,” in which she played a lower-middle-class housewife who, according to the actress, “was completely vulnerable and generous; she had no sense of her own worth.” In “Gloria” (1980), she portrayed a faded showgirl who is threatened by her ex-boyfriend, a crime boss. For both roles, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
She and Cassavetes met at the American School of Dramatic Arts when both were just starting their careers. They married four months later. In 1960, Cassavetes used his earnings from the television series Johnny Stacatto to finance his first film, Shadows. The film was partly improvised, shot with natural light on New York locations, and had a budget of $40,000. Critics praised it for its stark realism.
Rowlands developed into an experienced actor through live television dramas and tours in “The Seven Year Itch” and “Time for Ginger” as well as off-Broadway.
