American actress, born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1930. Gena studied at the University of Wisconsin, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Then moved to New York to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Gena began her acting career when she was 14, in a theater scholarship. Her first movie was the comedy The High Cost of Loving, most of her films during that time were directed by John Cassavetes, who later became her husband. Their greatest success was in 1974, A Woman Under the Influence, followed by the mob drama Gloria in 1980. She received Academy Award nominations for both performances.
The couple worked together on 10 films, including A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Machine Gun McCain, Minnie and Moskowitz, A Woman Under the Influence, Two-Minute Warning, Opening Night, Gloria, Tempest, and Love Streams.
“He had a particular sympathetic interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame what they needed to, so all his movies have some interesting women, and you don’t need many,” she told the AP in 2015.
In 2004, Gena starred in the film adapation of Nicholas Sparks’ book The Notebook. The movie was a family collaboration directed by Gena’s son Nick Cassavetes. Gena, who played the role of an older woman suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in The Notebook, was diagnosed with Alzheimer 15 years after. Her son Nick talked about that in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He said, “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy, we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
Gena passed away at at age 94 surrounded by her family.
“It’s a tricky life, but it was so exciting and wonderful, because you were doing what you really wanted to do”. Gena once said.
Happy heavenly birthday, Gena Rowlands.
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