Just Before a month after celebrating her birthday, Gena Rowlands died in a hospital in Los Angeles at age 94. The actress is most famous for playing Allie who was old in The Notebook (2004) but still in love with Noah. Her Son Nick Cassavetes who directed her, has confirmed that she passed away.
Rowlands fought against Alzheimer’s disease for the previous five years in silence. During her illustrious career, she received two nominations for Oscars while collecting four Emmy Awards. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly conducted back in June, Nick disclosed that his mother had been diagnosed with a particular disease in 2019 with full-blown dementia.
Nick said “I asked my mom to play the older Allie and we just sat around talking about Alzheimer’s a lot wanting it authentic. But she has had Alzheimer’s for the last 5 years and It’s in full dementia, it is insane. We lived it. And she did it, and now it’s on us.
The personal life of Rowlands, who is cast in the movie “The Notebook” as Allie, was greatly influenced by her mother’s fight with Alzheimer’s disease. In a 2004 interview with O Magazine, she stated that “The Notebook was especially difficult for me since I was playing someone suffering from Alzheimer’s. I went through this with my mother and if Nick had not directed it I would not have gone for it. It’s just too difficult.”
Although it was more or less for personal reasons, Rowlands felt comforted doing it with her son. “You would expect Nick to withdraw from me to keep the actor-director relationship going,” she stated. “He had total control over everything as a director at that point but still managed to be quite gentle and respectful towards his mother.”
Over six decades have passed since Rowland’s acting ventured forth, the most notable collaborations are counted among the ten films she made alongside her late spouse and director John Cassavetes. “A Woman Under the Influence”, released in 1974, is one of their most famous productions; as well as “Gloria” produced in nineteen eighty. Two times nominated for an Academy Award, those two mentioned above titles belonged to Rowlands.
Rowlands received four Emmy Awards, one for her work in “The Betty Ford Story” (1987), another for acting in “Face of a Stranger” (1991), and yet another for starring in “Hysterical Blindness” (2002), among other nominations to the prestigious Oscar prize. In 1975, she was also honored with a Golden Globe Award for “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974).
The end of an age for admirers of ‘The Notebook’ and her extraordinary work is marked by Rowlands’ death. Never will her performance as Allie who suffers from Alzheimers be forgotten, signifying both her acting abilities and the capacity for love to go beyond all odds
