Gena Rowlandslegendary actress who became one of the first big faces of American independent cinema Thanks to her collaboration with her late husband John Cassavetes, she died at the age of 94.
Rowlands, who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, died Wednesday afternoon at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to multiple media reports. No cause of death has been released.
Born in Cambria, Wisconsin, in 1930, Rowlands began acting in stage productions in the 1950s, gradually working her way from regional theater to Broadway before becoming a television regular. By the end of the decade, she was frequently hosting TV movies and making guest appearances on major network shows.
In 1954, Rowlands married John Cassavetes, who would become her most important collaborator. Rowlands starred in ten films written and directed by Cassavetes, many of which were self-financed and quickly made with close friends in between his larger acting jobs. Their films were characterized by their gritty social realism, improvised dialogue, and long scenes that required the actors to bear the brunt of the narrative burden. Their work laid the foundation for American independent movie as we know it today, it became both a business model and a source of artistic inspiration for countless directors who went on to make their own films outside the studio system.
Rowlands's first film with Cassavetes was 1963's A Child Is Waiting, in which she played a divorced mother who is forced to reunite with the child she gave up for adoption, alongside Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster. Its release by United Artists caused creative and financial friction between Cassavetes and his backers, prompting the pair to turn their attention to more independent productions. They teamed up again for 1968's Faces, an influential New Hollywood film that saw Cassavetes more boldly explore his naturalistic tendencies and Rowlands playing a key supporting role as a chain-smoking, hard-drinking call girl who is all too happy to watch a marriage crumble.
Rowlands soon began starring in her husband's films. In 1971's Minnie and Moskowitz, she played the eponymous museum curator who struggles to adjust to middle age in an abusive relationship. She received her first Oscar nomination in 1974 for “Woman under the influence” Cassavetes' landmark film, in which she masterfully played a Los Angeles housewife slowly going mad, proved to be a defining moment in the couple's careers, and Rowlands' performance is remembered by many as one of the defining roles in film history.
She continued to collaborate with Cassavetes until his death in 1989. Other highlights of her collaborations include her role as an aging stage actress struggling to cope with her fading career in Opening Night (1977) and her Oscar-nominated performance as a woman fleeing the Mafia in Gloria (1980).
Rowlands remained a prolific actress throughout her life, notably appearing in films such as Woody Allen's The Other Woman in 1988 and her son Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook in 2004. She won four Primetime Emmy Awards in the 2000s for various guest appearances on television. Her final role was in the 2014 film Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. In June 2024, her family revealed that Rowlands had been battling Alzheimer's disease for the past five years.
Rowlands is survived by her three children: Nick, Alexandra and Zoe Cassavetes.