Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft, has died at age 94. She was considered a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and later charmed audiences in her son’s tear-jerker The Notebook.
Rowlands’ death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. He revealed earlier this year that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease. TMZ reported that Rowlands died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, Calif.
Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria and Faces.
Rowlands made 10 films across four decades with Cassavetes, including Minnie and Moskowitz in 1971, Opening Night in 1977 and Love Streams in 1984.
She earned two Oscar nods for two of them: 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence, in which she played a wife and mother cracking under the burden of domestic harmony, and Gloria in 1980, about a woman who helps a young boy escape the mob.
“He had a particular sympathetic interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame what they needed to, so all his movies have some interesting women, and you don’t need many,” she told the AP in 2015.
In addition to the Oscar nominations, Rowlands earned three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy and two Golden Globes. She was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood.
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“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.”
A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in her son’s blockbuster The Notebook, in which she played a woman whose memory is ravaged, looking back on a romance for the ages. Her younger self was portrayed by Rachel McAdams. (She also appeared in Nick Cassavetes’ Unhook the Stars in 1996.)
In her later years, Rowlands made several appearances in films and TV, including in The Skeleton Key and the detective series Monk. Her last appearance in a movie was in 2014, playing a retiree who befriends her gay dance instructor in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
One of her career triumphs was 1974’s Woman Under the Influence, playing a lower middle-class housewife who, the actor said, “was totally vulnerable and giving; she had no sense of her own worth.” In Gloria (1980) she portrayed a faded showgirl menaced by her ex-boyfriend, a mobster boss. She was Oscar nominated as best actress for both performances.
She and Cassavetes met at the American School of Dramatic Arts when both their careers were beginning. They married four months later. In 1960 Cassavetes used his earnings from the TV series Johnny Stacatto to finance his first film, Shadows. Partly improvised, shot with natural light on New York locations with a US$40,000 budget, it was applauded by critics for its stark realism.
Gena (pronounced Jenna) Rowlands became a seasoned actor through live television drama and tours in The Seven Year Itch and Time for Ginger as well as off-Broadway.
Her big break came when Josh Logan cast her opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s play Middle of the Night. Her role as a young woman in love with her much older boss brought reviews hailing her as a new star.
MGM offered her a contract for two pictures a year. Her first film, a comedy directed by and costarring Jose Ferrer, The High Cost of Loving, brought Rowlands comparisons to one of the great 1930s stars, Carole Lombard.
But she asked to be released from her contract because she was expecting a baby. Often during her career she would absent herself from the screen for long stretches to attend to family matters.
In addition to Nick, she and Cassavetes had two daughters, Alexandra and Zoe, who also pursued acting careers.
John Cassavetes died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, and Rowlands returned to acting to assuage her grief. Between assignments she sometimes attended film festivals and societies for Cassavetes screenings.
“I want everyone to see his films,” she said at the San Sebastian Festival in 1992. “John was one of a kind, the most totally fearless person I’ve ever known. He had a very specific view of life and the individuality of people.”
Virginia Cathryn Rowlands was born in 1930 (some sources give a later date) in Cambria, Wisc., where her Welsh ancestors had settled in the early 19th century. Her father was a banker and state senator. She was a withdrawn child who loved books and make-believe. Her mother encouraged the girl’s ambition to become an actor.
Rowlands quit the University of Wisconsin in her junior year to pursue an acting career in New York. Like other actors of her generation, she gained invaluable experience in the thriving field of television drama in the 1950s, appearing on all the major series.
After leaving her MGM contract, she was able to choose her film roles. When nothing attracted her, she appeared in TV series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Dr. Kildare and The Virginian. One of her career delights was co-starring with her icon Bette Davis on the TV movie Strangers in 1979.
Her other movies included 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 with 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 blue-collar family Light of Day.
In middle age and beyond, Rowlands continued playing demanding roles. In Woody Allen’s austere drama, Another Woman, she was cast as a writer whose life has been shielded from emotion until dire incidents force her to deal with her feelings. In the groundbreaking TV movie An Early Frost, she appeared as a mother confronting her son’s AIDS.
Rowlands commented in 1992 that her roles remained in her memory.
“Sometimes, those white nights when I have no sleep and a lot of time to think about everything, I’ll examine different possibilities of different characters and what they might be doing now,” she said.
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