In 1980, this 14-year-old chubby girl thoroughly enjoyed watching Gena Rowlands in “Gloria.” Her fierce but non-classic beauty and tough girl articulation of the role gave me another actress I could relate to and cheer on, and I’ve watched and enjoyed her since then. I also liked the way Rowlands’ life and career was a family affair. She was married to her auteur, writer-director John Cassavetes for 35 years, until his death in 1989. Rowlands notably took on feature film roles in order to help finance his films! Rowlands’ seminal late Gen X/Millennial role in “The Notebook” was directed by her son Nick Cassavetes. She also starred in her daughter Zoe Cassavetes’ 2007 film “Broken English.” That’s a level of family bonding, trust, faith, and encouragement that goes above and beyond, and that Hollywood should celebrate more.
My favorite Gena Rowlands film is a 1998 movie by William Carroll that did not receive much critical or box office acclaim. “Playing by Heart” was about relationships and a family’s bond. It also featured the illustrious Sean Connery and a set of young actors who are now the Hollywood old guard with storied careers of their own. Rowlands was her husband and director John Cassavetes’ muse. He directed her to two Academy Award nominations for 1974’s “A Woman Under the Influence” and the aforementioned “Gloria.”
Ahead of receiving an honorary Academy Award in 2015 for career achievement, Rowlands told entertainment-zine “Variety”:
“Working this long? I didn’t even think I’d be living this long,” she confessed to Variety ahead of the event in the roaring, throaty laugh instantly familiar from “A Woman Under the Influence,” as well as “Faces,” “Opening Night” and other Cassavetes-directed drams.
That laugh has been stilled, and I am thankful for the long career that will forever be encapsulated on film. On Wednesday, Gena Rowlands died at 94, with a career that spanned over 60 years. Most remarkable—especially for Hollywood—she left behind a legacy of a loving family who were at her side until the end.
Her death was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent. 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.
Virginia Cathryn (Gena) Rowlands was born in Madison, Wisconsin. She started her education at the University of Wisconsin but left for New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. That was 1954, where she met and married fellow actor John Cassavetes and they blazed a trail on Broadway and then to Hollywood.
Rowlands made her film debut in 1958 opposite Jose Ferrer in the light romantic comedy “The High Cost of Loving.” She played a sturdy earth mother-type opposite Kirk Douglas in “Lonely Are the Brave” (1962) but started to explore the neurotic core of roles to come as the troubled mother of a mentally handicapped son in “A Child Is Waiting” (1963), directed by Cassavetes.
Rowlands collaborated with Cassavetes on 10 films, including “Faces” (1968), “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), “Opening Night” (1977) and “Love Streams” (1984). Though she also worked with other name directors — Paul Mazursky (“Tempest”), Paul Schrader (“Light of Day”) and Woody Allen (“Another Woman”) — her work with Cassavetes defined the American independent cinema of the ’70s and ’80s.
Rowlands also was nominated for eight Emmy Awards and won three: for her roles in ABC’s “The Betty Ford Story” in 1987, for CBS in 1992’s “Face of a Stranger,” and in 2003 for HBO’s “Hysterical Blindness.” Rowlands is survived by her second husband, Robert Forrest, who she married in 2012, as well as her children Nick, Zoe, and Alexandra (Xan), along with a host of grandchildren.
What a storied and long-lasting career that was bookended by what seems to be an even more fulfilling life. Rest in Peace, Gena Rowlands.
