‘The Notebook’ ‘Gloria’ Star Turned 94

Gena Rowlands, whose groundbreaking and fearless performance in “A Woman Under the Influence” inspired a generation and who starred in many other John Cassavetes films as well as the romance “The Notebook,” died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, California. was 94.

Her death was confirmed by her son’s agent’s office. In June, Nick Cassavetes, who directed his mother in “The Notebook,” shared that the three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rowlands’ role as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 drama “A Woman Under the Influence,” written for her and directed by husband John Cassavetes, earned the actor the first of two Academy Award nominations. The other name was for “Gloria” (1980), also directed by her husband. In November 2015, she received an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors Awards in recognition of her legendary career.

“Working that long? I didn’t even think I would live this long,” she admitted Variety preceding the event in the bellowing, throaty laugh immediately familiar from “A Woman Under the Influence,” as well as “Faces,” “Opening Night” and other Cassavetes-directed drams.

After her husband died in 1989, Rowlands continued to work as an actor, mainly for her own children, who became actor-directors. She had roles in son Nick’s directorial debut, “Unhook the Stars” (1996), his hit film “The Notebook” (2004) and his 2012 film “Yellow,” as well as a role in daughter Zoe’s “Broken English.” (2007). ). She also helmed Terence Davies’ 1995 coming-of-age drama “The Neon Bible,” set in 1940s Georgia.

Early in her career, she made an almost effortless transition from Broadway ingénue to grande dame. In an early interview. In her acceptance speech at the Governors Awards, she shared the following: “Many women, if they cannot continue to play young romantic roles, do not want to consider character roles and quit sooner. But I just looked at the scripts and kept seeing what I would like to do and never worried about it.

In a 1975 review of “A Woman Under the Influence” for Boston Phoenix, film critic Janet Maslin said, “I know of no other actress who has the physical and emotional elasticity to speed through Mabel’s moods as Rowlands does.” calls the actor’s breakdown scene “as heart-stoppingly authentic as anything she or Cassavetes has ever done.”

Rowland’s last feature film credits came in two 2014 films: science fiction comedy ‘Parts Per Billion’ with Frank Langella, and an adaptation of the play ‘Dancing for Six Weeks’ with Joshua Jackson.

On the occasion of Rowlands’ handprint and footprint ceremony at the Chinese Theater in December 2014, Variety wrote of the actress: “No one is better known for anatomizing the terror of a nervous breakdown.”

Rowlands made her film debut in 1958 opposite Jose Ferrer in the light romantic comedy ‘The High Cost of Loving’. She played a tough earthly mother opposite Kirk Douglas in “Lonely Are the Brave” (1962), but began to explore the neurotic core of future roles as the troubled mother of a mentally challenged son in “A Child Is Waiting” (1963). ), directed by Cassavetes.

Rowlands collaborated with Cassavetes on ten films, including ‘Faces’ (1968), ‘Minnie and Moskowitz’ (1971), ‘Opening Night’ (1977) and ‘Love Streams’ (1984). Although she also collaborated with other directors – Paul Mazursky (“Tempest”), Paul Schrader (“Light of Day”) and Woody Allen (“Another Woman”) – her work with Cassavetes defined American independent cinema of the 1970s and 1970s. ’80.

Cassavetes reportedly had to drag gigs out of Rowlands, who was largely a reluctant star. The director did not soften his demands even when his wife, who played a call girl in “Faces,” was pregnant with their second child during the filming of the film.

Like her husband, however, Rowlands worked in mainstream films to finance his films, appearing, for example, in ‘Two Minute Warning’ and earlier, with Cassavetes and Peter Falk, in the 1968 Italian-made film ‘Machine Gun McCain’.”

Rowlands also enjoyed a successful career in television, receiving eight Emmy Awards nominations and winning three: in 1987 as the lead actress in ABC’s “The Betty Ford Story”; in 1992 as the lead actress in “Face of a Stranger” (CBS); and in 2003 as a supporting actress in HBO’s “Hysterical Blindness.”

Rowlands also won a Daytime Emmy in 2004 as the title character in Showtime’s ‘The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie’. She played the estranged daughter of Bette Davis, one of her screen idols, in the 1979 CBS telepic “Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter.” And in the 1985 NBC telepic “An Early Frost,” Rowlands played the role of a mother whose son discovers he has AIDS. It is considered the first major film drama about the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Virginia Cathryn Rowlands was born in Madison, Wisc. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin and eventually moved to New York to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She married fellow actor John Cassavetes, who had admired her work in a production there, a few months after meeting him in 1954.

Rowlands worked in television in the 1950s, debuting in an episode of “Top Secret” in 1954 and appearing in episodic anthology shows such as “Studio One in Hollywood” and “The United States Steel Hour.”

In 1952, Rowlands made her Broadway debut in “The Seven Year Itch,” and in 1956 she starred on stage opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s “Middle of the Night.”

Rowlands co-wrote and starred with Ben Gazzara – a longtime Cassavetes collaborator – in ‘Quartier Latin’, a short film included in the 2006 omnibus film ‘Paris, je t’aime’. In recent years she has also worked for the television and guest starred on ‘Monk’ in 2009 (with an Emmy nomination) and ‘NCIS’ in 2010.

Rowlands is survived by her children, Nick, Zoe and Alexandra (Xan), several grandchildren and her second husband, Robert Forrest. The two married in 2012.