Gena Rowlands dead: Son and director Nick Cassavetes shares tragic news about the star of “Notebook”

“Independent films existed before Cassavetes, but in collaboration with Rowlands, Cassavetes succeeded in creating an independent cinema that was oriented towards Hollywood – not in plot or style, but in acting appeal and dramatic power,” says the New Yorkers said in 2016.

The tall blonde actress made ten films with Cassavetes until his death in 1989, including the psychodrama Opening night (1977), the marriage saga Faces (1968) and 1984 Love streamsin which she played his sister.

“Her performances in her late husband's films always reflected a manic energy, a fear of failure and a desire for love,” the awards website Golden Derby said of Rowlands.

In A woman under the influenceIn “The 40 Years of Love,” which Cassavetes originally wrote as a play and which is considered one of her best performances, Rowlands played Mabel Longhetti, a housewife struggling with mental illness.

As the tough, determined title character in Cassavetes' 1980 film GloriaShe saved and protected a young orphan boy from gangsters who wanted to kill him.

“Rowlands' sublime acting is almost unparalleled in its sense of identity: her beleaguered heroines act from reserves of need so deep that only Rowlands can access them, not just claiming moments for herself but wrestling with them to uncover even harder layers of authenticity,” said critic Matthew Eng at the Tribeca News Website in 2016.

Although she did not win an Oscar for either role, Rowlands was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015.

Rowlands always wanted to act

Virginia Cathryn “Gena” Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930 in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father was a banker and politician, her mother an actress.

After college, she moved to New York, where she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and met fellow student Cassavetes.

“I always wanted to be an actress. As a child, I read so much and I realized that there are other things you can do. You can live many lives, have a lot of fun and see many things,” she told the New York Times in 2016.

Rowlands worked in regional theater and television before making her Broadway debut in Middle of the night in 1956. Two years later she got her first film role in The high price of loveand appeared in Cassavetes' directorial debut film S.Hadows.

“It was like working for no one else,” she told film critic Roger Ebert about her husband in 2016. “The freedom John gave his actors was amazing.”

Rowlands continued to work in films, including Woody Allen’s 1988 drama Another womanand on television after Cassavetes' death.

She won the Emmy for Best Actress for The Betty Ford Story (1987) and the drama Face of a stranger (1992) and won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Hysterical blindness (2002).

The independent film icon found a new audience when she returned to the screen in 2004 as an older version of the character played by actress Rachel McAdams in The notebook.

Rowlands was married to Cassavetes from 1954 until his death. They had three children. In 2012, she married businessman Robert Forrest.

“Life is difficult, but it was so exciting and wonderful because you were doing what you really wanted to do,” she said of acting and making independent films.