According to media reports, the American actress Gena Rowlands has passed away. She died on Wednesday at the age of 94, as reported by the online portal TMZ and the “New York Times.” Rowlands gained fame, among other things, through the film “A Woman Under the Influence” from 1974.
Rowlands died surrounded by her family at her home in Indian Wells in Southern California, according to TMZ. An official cause of death was not initially provided. In June, her son Nick Cassavetes told the “New York Times” that Rowlands had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for five years.
Nick Cassavetes had cast Rowlands in 2004 for the romantic drama “The Notebook.” In the best-selling film adaptation, she played an elderly woman named Allie in a nursing home suffering from Alzheimer’s. The film looks back at the young Allie (Rachel McAdams) and her great love Noah (Ryan Gosling).
The actress, who had been married to entrepreneur Robert Forrest since 2012, continued to work well into old age. “I am very glad that I have made it to this age,” she told the “Huffington Post” at 84. “When you say it out loud, it sounds very old. And it is. But you can still have a lot of fun.”
Rowlands’s career is inextricably linked with actor and director John Cassavetes, to whom she was married for 35 years until his death in 1989. She made films with him, such as “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria.” After her husband’s death, Rowlands appeared in films including “Night on Earth.” In 2015, she was honored with an honorary Oscar for her life’s work.