The world lost a talented actress on August, 14, 2024. Gena Rowlands died while surrounded by her family at her home in Indian Wells, California. She was 94 years old at the time of her passing. Her cause of death has not yet been announced.
Gena was best known in recent years for her role as the older Allie Calhoun in the 2004 film The Notebook. Cinephiles will remember her as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 independent film A Woman Under the Influence. This role earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress.
Life imitated art.
In The Notebook, Gena's character, Allie, has Alzheimer's disease. In 2019, Gena received the same diagnosis. This became public knowledge in 2024. In honor of the film's 20th anniversary, her son Nick Cassavetes, who was also the movie's director, opened up about this.
"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," he revealed to Entertainment Weekly. "She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us." Gena also experienced this with her own mother.
She pioneered independent filmmaking in the '70s and '80s.
Gena and her late husband John Cassavetes made 10 films together. Many of movies were self-financed. Gena and John would take roles in films, such as Two Minute Warning and Machine Gun McCain, so they could make passion projects such as Faces.
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At first she didn't think she wanted to be a wife or mom.
Gena first met her late husband John in 1954 when they were both students at the American Academy for Dramatic Arts. She thought he was handsome but had her eyes on the prize. She wanted to be an actress and didn't want any distractions.
“The one thing I never wanted to do was to fall in love or get married or have children,” she revealed to T Magazine in an 2016 interview. “I wanted to act.” She changed her mind and married him a couple of months later. The couple went on to have three kids. They remained together until his death in 1989.
She didn’t like the limelight
Gena was all about the work. She wasn't always a fan of the notoriety that came with it. John was great at coaxing performances out of her. He didn't back down even when she was pregnant with their second child, Alexandra, during the filming of Faces. He knew what she was capable of.
Her favorite film role was…
Gena loved working with John. Her favorite collaboration with him was A Woman Under the Influence which was specifically written for her. She opened up about this to Variety in 2016.
“You were dealing with a woman who was a little wacky to begin with and she was obsessively in love with her husband,” she explained. “She got into such real trouble with her own psyche that she had a major nervous breakdown. I found it so touching.”
She was surprised at how successful 'The Notebook' was.
Gena would not have ever predicted how beloved The Notebook would become, but thought she understood why. In the same Variety interview she offered her two cents.
“I didn’t think it would have that kind of impact,” she confessed. “I think it was such a big hit because it was about the realization that love can last your whole life. You don’t see it depicted that way a lot. In most films, you don’t get to see a story like that go from the beginning to the end with the possibility that love can be perhaps eternal.”
She got her start on Broadway.
After studying in New York, Gena pursued work in theater. She made her Broadway debut in 1952 as the character Elaine in The Seven Year Itch. She would go on to star in the Middle of the Night in 1956 alongside Edward G. Robinson. She also began getting television roles at this time.
She was no stranger to television.
Gena's first television role was British series Top Secret. It wouldn't be her last. She was nominated for eight Emmy Awards during her career. She won three for her work in The Betty Ford Story, Face of a Stranger, and Hysterical Blindness. She won a Daytime Emmy for her work in The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.
Additionally, she was nominated for two Oscars. In 2015 she was awarded an honorary Academy Award for her lifetime of achievement.
She remarried.
Gena found love again after John's death. She married retired businessman Robert Forrest in 2012. The couple were together until her death.
She was a grandma.
Beyond the stage and screen, Gena is survived by her husband Robert and three children Nick, Alexandra (Xan), and Zoe. Nick followed in his parents' footsteps and is an actor and director. He also had three children, making Gena a grandma. Xan is also an actor, writer, and director and a mother of two. Zoe is also in the family business, writing and directing.
