Off The Record
Gena Rowlands, Best Known For Her Role In The Hit Film The Notebook, Has Passed Away
At the age of 94, Gena Rowlands, who was most remembered for her part in the popular movie The Notebook, passed away.
Renowned for her role as the elder Rachel McAdams, the Golden Globe winner played the older version of the actress in her son Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 film, which also starred Ryan Gosling.
The actress passed away on Wednesday afternoon, August 14, at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to a TMZ source.
Her eldest daughter, Alexandra Cassavetes, 58, and her husband, Robert Forrest, were among the many loved ones who surrounded her. According to the outlet, her son visited her multiple times in the week prior to her death.
Although the reason for his death is still unknown, Cassavetes disclosed that his mother had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for five years, much like her tragic character in The Notebook.
In June, the 65-year-old revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that Rowland was currently “in full dementia.”
“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 explained. “She has complete dementia. We experienced it, she acted it out, and now it’s our fault. It’s crazy.”
Rowlands spoke candidly about her mother’s battles with Alzheimer’s disease when The Notebook was first published in Oprah’s O Magazine.
“This last one, The Notebook, was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” she said. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it—it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”
Rowlands, who was born in Wisconsin in June 1930, starred on stage and in films for seven decades before stepping away from the spotlight in 2015 at the age of 84.
Before securing parts in TV series like Top Secret, Robert Montgomery Presents, and Appointment With Adventure in the 1950s, she started her career on Broadway in plays like Middle of the Night and The Seven Year Itch.
She then went on to star in The High Cost of Loving, a 1958 film, but she also kept making appearances on TV shows including Peyton Place, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and 87th Precinct.
Together with her late husband, John Cassavetes, who passed away in 1989, the late actress worked on ten films over the course of forty years, including Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977), and Love Streams (1984).
With the Cassavetes-directed films mother Under the Influence (1974), in which she played a housewife battling mental illness, and Gloria (1975), in which she played a mother who protected a small orphaned kid from mobsters, she was nominated for an Oscar.
Among Rowlands’ many accolades are an honorary Academy Award (2015), two Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globes.
“You know what’s wonderful about being an actress? You don’t just live one life,” she said when she received the award for her long acting career. “You live many lives.”
Danny DeVito was among the stars to pay tribute to Rowlands, penning a simple message with the words: “Gena, love,” alongside a love-heart and upset emoji.
Gone Girl actor Carrie Coon wrote on X: “We lost Gena Rowlands—one of the greats—but also our dignity, as headlines trumpet: actress from ‘The Notebook.’”
The Mandalorian actor Amy Sedaris shared an emotional message on her Instagram, along pictures of the actress. “Rest in peace, Gena Rowland. No one comes close. No one. Very sad. #spiritinthesky,” she wrote.
One fan remembered Rowlands as “one of the few performers who I could actively make a case for as one of the greatest actors to ever do it,” adding: “Your performances in Opening Night and A Woman Under the Influence are some of the greatest committed to celluloid.”
Right now, our sympathies are with Rowlands’ family and supporters.
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