Gena Rowlands, Star Of ‘The Notebook’ And ‘A Woman Under The Influence,’ Dead At 94

Gena Rowlands, an Oscar-nominated actress with a nearly seven-decade career and over 100 film and television credits, died at 94.

Danny Greenberg’s office, which represents Rowlands’ son, Nick Cassavetes, confirmed the revelation. No other information was provided.

Gena Rowlands, Star Of ‘The Notebook’ And ‘A Woman Under The Influence,’ Dead At 94

Rowlands was noted for her work in early indie filmmaking with her first husband, director John Cassavetes, as well as popular titles later in her career, such as “Hope Floats” in 1998 opposite Sandra Bullock and the hit picture “The Notebook” in 2004.

She received two Academy Award nominations for 1974’s “A Woman Under the Influence” and 1980’s “Gloria,” directed by John Cassavetes.

According to the Academy website, the actress received an honorary Oscar in 2015, together with filmmaker Spike Lee, for “extraordinary lifetime achievement” in cinema.

Though Rowland’s cause of death was not disclosed, Nick Cassavetes revealed in June that his mother had Alzheimer’s for the past five years. Her mother, actress Lady Rowlands, also suffered from the condition.

The son, who directed “The Notebook,” pondered on his mother’s portrayal in the film of an aging Allie Calhoun while the character battled Alzheimer’s.

“I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” Cassavetes told The New York Times. “She has full dementia. And that’s so crazy—we experienced it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

Nick Cassavetes also directed Rowlands in 1996’s Unhook the Stars. In a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times, the actress expressed her delight at working with her son.

“Everyone claimed it would be difficult to work for your son. “I suppose when you feel loved, everything is easy,” she told the Times.

Rowlands was born and raised in Wisconsin and performed in a few television parts before making her film debut in 1958 with “The High Cost of Loving”.

Gena Rowlands, Star Of ‘The Notebook’ And ‘A Woman Under The Influence,’ Dead At 94

She won her first Emmy for depicting the titular first lady in the 1987 made-for-television film “The Betty Ford Story.” Later, she won two more primetime Emmys for her roles in the 1991 CBS film “Face of a Stranger” and HBO’s 2002 feature “Hysterical Blindness.”

In 2012, she married her second husband, businessman Robert Forrest. She is survived by Forrest and the three children she had with John Cassavetes: Nick, Alexandra, and Zoe Cassavetes.

SOURCE | CNN