Award-Winning Actress Gena Rowlands Dies at 94
Actress Gena Rowlands, a mainstay in show business for over 60 years died Wednesday. She was 94. Rowlands was born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 19, 1930,...
Actress Gena Rowlands, a mainstay in show business for over 60 years died Wednesday.
She was 94.
Rowlands was born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 19, 1930, the HuffPost reported.
She participated in all avenues in the entertainment industry — theater, TV and film.
Broadway was the first avenue with Rowlands starring in “Middle of the Night” and “The Seven Year Itch.”
Television was the second avenue with roles “Top Secret,” “Robert Montgomery Presents” and “Appointment With Adventure.”
Then came a film in 1958 with “The High Cost of Loving,” which marked her debut in movie theaters.
She also continued in TV in “87th Precinct,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” and “Peyton Place.”
Rowlands was married to John Cassavetes from 1954 until his death in 1989.
The had three children — Nick, Alexandra and Zoe.
Rowlands and Cassavetes worked together and made 10 films together over 20 years.
Those include “A Child Is Waiting” (1963), “Faces” (1968), “Machine Gun McCain” (1969), “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), “Two-Minute Warning” (1976), “Opening Night” (1977), “Gloria” (1980), “Tempest” (1982) and “Love Streams” (1984).
Rowlands received Best Actress Oscar nominations for “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria.”
She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress for “A Woman Under the Influence.”
“We both had careers and what we would do is when we ran out of money on the movies, which was frequently, we would stop for a while and go do somebody else’s movie,” Rowlands said of her work on independent films with her husband. “Then we would bring that money back. It took a long time to get our movies done.”
The accolades continued in 1887 when she won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal as Betty Ford in “The Betty Ford Story.”
She also won Emmys for “Face of a Stranger” (1991) and “Hysterical Blindness” (2003), and a Daytime Emmy for “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie” (2004).
Other films she starred in were “Something to Talk About” (1995), “Hope Floats” (1998) and “The Skeleton Key” (2005).
She also starred in 2004’s “The Notebook,” which was directed by her son Nick Cassavetes.
Rowlands also continued to act in TV shows like “Monk” and “NCIS.”
Rowlands married Robert Forrest, a retired businessman, in 2012.
She received an Honorary Academy Award in 2015 at the Governors Awards.
“I think one of the most wonderful things about acting is that you get to live so many lives, as in reading, too,” Rowlands said in a 2015 interview. “I’m sure that influenced me. I never wanted to be anything but an actress.”
Many fans posted remembrances on X, formerly Twitter, after her passing.
