‘The Notebook’ Star Gena Rowlands Dead at 94

Gena Rowlands, the four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe Award-winning actress best known for A Woman Under the Influence and The Notebook, has died. Rowlands passed away at her Indian Welles, California home surrounded by family on Wednesday, Aug. 14, according to TMZ. She was 94.

Although Rowlands’ cause of death was not disclosed, her son, film director Nick Cassavetes, revealed in June that his mother had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Cassavetes reflected on his mother’s role in The Notebook, the 2004 adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ book in which she portrayed an older version of Rachel McAdams’ character Allie Calhoun, who struggled with Alzheimer’s.

“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 told the outlet. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”

Born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Cambria, Wisconsin, on June 19, 1930, Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to New York City, where she studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met her husband and frequent collaborator John Cassavetes, per The Hollywood Reporter. She made her TV debut in an episode of Top Secret in 1954, going on to make her film debut just years later in the 1958 comedy The High Cost of Loving.

Throughout her decades-long career, Rowlands starred in TV series and films including Johnny Staccato, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Islanders, Bonanza, Peyton Palace, The Betty Ford Story, Hope Floats, Something to Talk About, Woody Allen’s 1988 film Another Woman, and more. She and her husband collaborated on 10 films together, including A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Machine Gun McCain, Minnie and Moskowitz, and Tempest.

In addition to being well-known for her role in The Notebook, which also starred Ryan Gosling, Rowlands is also remembered for 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence, another collaboration with her husband. Her role as Mabel Longhetti earned her an Oscar nomination, with Rowlands also picking up an Oscar nod for Gloria. She earned eight Emmy nominations, taking home three – in 1987 as lead actress in ABC’s The Betty Ford Story, in 1992 as lead actress in Face of a Stranger, and in 2003 as supporting actress in HBO’s Hysterical Blindness. She also won a Daytime Emmy in 2004 for Showtime’s The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.

Rowlands is survived by survived by her children, Nick, Zoe and Alexandra (Xan), as well as grandchildren and her second husband, Robert Forrest, whom she married in 2012.