US actress Gena Rowlands dies at 94

Gena Rowlands, a renowned US actress famous for her roles in the films directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, passed away at the age of 94 on Wednesday, as reported by US media outlets. 

Rowlands peacefully passed away at her residence in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by her family, according to TMZ. 

Although no official cause of death has been announced yet, Rowlands’s son Nick Cassavetes revealed in June that she had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, as reported by the New York Times. 

Rowlands appeared in 10 movies directed by John Cassavetes and was married to him for almost 35 years until his demise in 1989. 

During the 1960s, the couple created a captivating and intense on-screen partnership that explored themes of passion, self-destruction, alcohol, and infidelity over three decades. 

One of her most acclaimed performances was in “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), where Rowlands skillfully portrayed the descent of a housewife into mental illness, earning her the first of two Oscar nominations. 

“Incapable of an unreal moment,” praised Woody Allen regarding the actress, whom he worked with in his 1988 film “Another Woman.” 

“Whatever I say about Gena isn’t enough because she’s so incredible,” expressed Winona Ryder, as quoted in the LA Times in 1992 when they co-starred in Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth.”

– A storied career –

Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin, into a cultured middle-class family. Her father was a state senator, and her mother was a painter and occasional actress. 

She enrolled in New York’s American Academy of Drama and met Cassavetes in 1953, a vivacious Greek-American whom she later married in 1954.

Their collaboration resulted in her outstanding performances, most notably in “A Woman Under the Influence,” which also led to an Oscar nomination for Cassavetes as a director. 

Rowlands delivered a mesmerizing performance as Mabel, a housewife descending into madness after years of complex domination by her hardworking, silent husband, portrayed by Peter Falk. 

After Cassavetes’s passing in 1989 due to liver failure from alcoholism, Rowlands continued her work in films and television, receiving four Emmys. 

She shared three children with Cassavetes, all of whom pursued careers in the entertainment industry. Her son Nick directed her in “The Notebook” alongside Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 2004.

In 2012, she remarried to retired businessman Robert Forrest and was honored with an honorary Academy Award in 2015, the same year she retired from acting.

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