Legendary actress Gena Rowlands, perhaps best known by some generations for her acclaimed work in films like Gloria and by other generations for her beloved roles in movies including The Notebook, has died at age 94. No further details were given by the office of the agent representing Rowlands' son, Nick Cassavetes, but Cassavetes revealed in June that Rowlands had been living with Alzheimer's disease for five years and was "in full dementia," CNN reports. TMZ's sources say Rowlands died Wednesday at her California home, surrounded by family including her second husband and her children.
The Hollywood Reporter describes Rowlands as the "wife and muse" of her first husband, director John Cassavetes, who directed her in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980)—both of which earned her Academy Award nominations—as well as Shadows (1959), A Child Is Waiting (1963), Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977) and Love Streams. It wasn't until 2015, the year she retired, that she was awarded her first Oscar, an honorary one. She also had four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes to her name. In later years, she also appeared in films including Hope Floats and a number of movies directed by her son—Unhook the Stars, The Notebook, and She's So Lovely.
THR says Rowlands and John Cassavetes, to whom she was married from 1954 until his death in 1989, "kick-started the independent film movement in America." They also sometimes made other people's movies to earn money to support their own projects. "We wanted a certain way of life. We wanted to get up and really do what we wanted to do that day," Rowlands once said. "We didn't want to go do something that everyone said we should do." THR has an extensive obituary here detailing her massive body of work. (More obituary stories.)
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