Veteran Hollywood actress Gena Rowlands, best known for Woman Under the Influence and The Notebook, has died aged 94.
She died on Wednesday at her home in California with son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, having revealed in June that his mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Rowlands starred in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, both operating outside the studio system, with indelible portraits of working-class and small-timers in films like A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria and Faces. They made 10 films across four decades including Minnie and Moskowitz, Opening Night and Love Streams.
In Woody Allen’s 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.
Her other notable movies include Lonely Are the Brave, The Spiral Road, A Child Is Waiting, Two Minute Warning, Tempest, and Light of Day.
A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in The Notebook, in which she played a woman whose memory is ravaged, looking back on a romance for the ages.
She was awarded an honourary Academy Award in 2015 in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood.
Rowlands made many appearances on TV in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Tab Hunter Show, 77 Sunset Strip, Bonanza, The Virginian, Dr. Kildare, Burke’s Law, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Peyton Place, Medical Center, Marcus Welby M.D., Colombo, Numb3rs, Monk and NCIS.
Her last appearance was in 2014, playing a retiree who befriends her gay dance instructor in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
Source: ABC
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