Gena Rowlands, the Oscar-nominated actress renowned for her powerful performances in films directed by her first husband, John Cassavetes, has passed away at the age of 94. Her son, Nick Cassavetes, announced her death on Wednesday. In 2024, Nick revealed that Rowlands had been living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Although Rowlands had a successful acting career both before and after her collaborations with Cassavetes, it was their partnership that truly defined her legacy. Together, they crafted a series of groundbreaking films that featured Rowlands in vivid portrayals of complex, emotionally charged women. These films included Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980), and Love Streams (1984). Her roles in these films were both daring and rare in American cinema, capturing the raw emotional depth of characters that had often been overlooked. As Rowlands noted in a 2001 interview with The Guardian, “It was considered embarrassing for an older woman to have anything to say about anything emotional.”
Born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1930, Rowlands’ journey into acting led her to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met Cassavetes during her audition in 1953. They married within a year and embarked on successful careers as actors on stage and screen. Rowlands made her Broadway debut in 1956 opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night and appeared in guest roles on television, including in Johnny Staccato, a cop series starring Cassavetes.
Cassavetes’ interest in directing culminated in the 1958 film Shadows, a landmark of the American new wave. Although Rowlands did not appear in Shadows , she took on a small role in his third directorial effort, A Child Is Waiting (1963). After clashing with Hollywood producer Stanley Kramer, Cassavetes and Rowlands decided to work independently. Their breakthrough came with Faces in 1968, in which Rowlands played a sex worker entangled in the unraveling marriage of a disillusioned husband.
The couple continued their collaboration with a string of films that explored the depths of human emotion. In Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Rowlands portrayed an art gallery curator recovering from a breakup who encountered an eccentric suitor. Her role in A Woman Under the Influence (1974) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, portraying a married woman on the brink of a breakdown. She continued to delve into complex characters, playing a mentally ill theater actress in Opening Night (1977) and a former mobster’s girlfriend who protects a young boy in Gloria (1980), which brought her a second Oscar nomination. Her final collaboration with Cassavetes was in Love Streams (1984), where she played the sister of an alcoholic, played by Cassavetes himself.
As Cassavetes' health declined, Rowlands expanded her career on television, winning critical acclaim in dramas like Thursday’s Child and The Betty Ford Story. She also explored diverse roles in cinema, including a philosophy professor in crisis in Woody Allen’s Another Woman (1988), a cab passenger in Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth* (1991), and Aunt Mae in Terence Davies’s 1995 adaptation of The Neon Bible.
Rowlands also collaborated with her son, Nick Cassavetes, appearing in his films She’s So Lovely (1997) and The Notebook (2004). Additionally, she featured in her daughter Zoe Cassavetes’ directorial debut, Broken English (2007).
Rowlands is survived by her three children, Nick, Alexandra, and Zoe, and her second husband, Robert Forrest, whom she married in 2012. In 2015, she was honored with an honorary Oscar for her exceptional contributions to cinema.