OAN Staff James Meyers
8:24 AM – Friday, August 16, 2024
Actress Gena Rowlands, who was considered one of the greatest on the screen and a leader in independent films, has died. She was 94.
Her death was confirmed by the office of Danny Greenberg, who is the representative for Rowlands’ son, Nick Cassavetes.
The husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created films of working-class strivers and small-timers in films such as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.”
Additionally, 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 was nominated for two Academy Awards, for 1974’s “A Woman Under the Influence” and 1980’s “Gloria,” both directed by her husband.
The late actress was also awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015, alongside director Spike Lee, as a recognition of “extraordinary lifetime achievement” in cinema, according to the Academy website.
Her son, Nick Cassavetes revealed in June that his mother had been living with Alzheimer’s for the last five years. Her mother, actress Lady Rowlands, also struggled with the disease.
Cassavetes, who directed “The Notebook,” reflected on his mother’s portrayal in the film of an aging Allie Calhoun as the character struggled with 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 Entertainment Weekly at the time. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
She received her first Emmy award for her portrayal of the titular lady in the 1987 made-for-TV movie “The Betty Ford Story.” Later, she would win two more primetime Emmys for her performances in the 1991 CBS film “Face of a Stranger” and HBO’s 2002 movie “Hysterical Blindness.”
In 2012, Rowlands married her second husband, businessman Robert Forrest. She is survived by Forrest, as well as the three children she shared with John Cassavetes: Nick, Alexandra and Zoe Cassavetes.
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