Gena Rowlands in ‘Gloria’. Photo: Columbia Pictures.
Advance:
- Gena Rowlands has passed away at the age of 94.
- She became known for her work with her husband, John Cassavetes.
- Younger audiences fell in love with her through the tearjerker 2004 film ‘The Notebook.’
Gena Rowlandsa OscarThe Oscar-nominated actress, whose emotional and impactful performances earned her Oscar and Emmy nominations, has died. She was 94.
Rowlands appeared on television, stage and film, and became known for a variety of wonderful roles in an eclectic range of projects.
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Gena Rowlands: early life
(From left to right) Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands in ‘A Woman Under the Influence’. Photo: Faces International Films.
Gena Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin, the daughter of banker Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands and actress Mary Allen Neal.
Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin and then chose to move to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. There she met a fellow acting student, John Cassavetes They married in 1954, which marked the beginning of a long professional career (more on that below) and also a personal one. The couple remained married until Cassavetes’ death in 1989.
Gena Rowlands: work in television
(L to R) Aidan Quinn and Gena Rowlands in ‘An Early Frost’. Photo: NBC.
Rowlands made her television debut in 1954 in ‘In the middle of the night“. That started a long television career that developed in parallel with his work in film. He had a regular role in ‘Peyton Place‘ and won the first of eight Emmy Award nominations for her moving portrayal of a mother facing the dual revelations that her son is gay and dying of AIDS in 1985’s The Last Man.An early frost‘.
He won his first Emmy Award for ‘The Betty Ford Story‘playing the former first lady. She won another Emmy for best actress for ‘Face of a stranger‘ and a trophy for best supporting actress for ‘Hysterical blindness.’
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Gena Rowlands: Notable Film Roles
(L-R) James Garner and Gena Rowlands in ‘The Notebook’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
Rowland’s first film role was in the comedy ‘The high cost of loving‘ in 1958. She had a small role in Cassavetes’ ‘Shadows’ before appearing in the western ‘The brave are alone‘.
Although she worked with several directors over the next two decades, most of her films during that time were directed by Cassavetes. The duo had arguably their biggest success with ‘A woman under the influence‘ in which she played a woman struggling to reintegrate with her family after being hospitalized for a mental breakdown, and the mob drama ‘Glory‘ in 1980. Rowlands received Academy Award nominations for both roles.
Other acclaimed collaborations of the pair include ‘Faces‘, ‘McCain Machine Gun‘, ‘Minnie and Moskowitz‘, ‘Two minute warning‘, ‘Opening night‘, ‘Storm‘, and ‘Currents of love‘, in which she acted alongside her husband as his sister). Other films included ‘‘The spiral path’, Woody Allen‘s’Another woman‘, ‘Something to talk about‘, ‘Hope floats‘, ‘The master key‘, ‘Broken English‘ and ‘Six dance lessons in six weeks’.
In more recent years, Rowlands won over a whole new audience by playing an older woman suffering from Alzheimer’s in the 2004 romantic dramaThe notebookIn 2015 he received an honorary Oscar.
Rowlands is survived by her second husband, Robert, daughters Alexandra and Zoe, and her filmmaker son. Nickwho directed her in ‘The Notebook’.
At the time of writing, Rowlands’ cause of death has not been announced, but she had been battling Alzheimer’s, a condition Nick confirmed in June.
Gena Rowlands in ‘Gloria’. Photo: Columbia Pictures.