Gena Rowlands, Who Created the Blueprint for the Modern Independent Film Star, Dead at 94
Christian Zilko
Gena Rowlands, the legendary actress who became one of the first major faces of American independent film through her collaborations with her late husband John Cassavetes, has died at the age of 94.
Rowlands, who had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, died on Wednesday, August 14 in the afternoon at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to multiple media reports. No cause of death was given.
Born in Cambria, Wisconsin in 1930, Rowlands began acting in stage productions in the 1950s, gradually working her way up from regional theater to Broadway before becoming a regular presence on television. By the end of the decade she was frequently leading TV movies and making guest appearances on major network shows.
In 1954, Rowlands married John Cassavetes, who would go on to become her most important collaborator. Rowlands starred in ten films written and directed by Cassavetes, many of which were self-financed and quickly shot with close friends in between his bigger acting jobs. Their films were characterized by their unvarnished social realism, improvised dialogue, and long scenes that required actors to bear the brunt of the narrative burden. Their work laid the foundation for American independent film as we know it today, providing both a business model and artistic inspiration to countless filmmakers who went on to make their own films outside the studio system.
Rowlands’ first film with Cassavetes was the 1963 film “A Child Is Waiting,” which saw her star as a divorced mother who is forced to reconnect with a child she gave up for adoption alongside Judy Garland and Burt Lancaster. The United Artists release caused creative and financial friction between Cassavetes and his backers, prompting the couple to turn their attention to more independent productions. They re-teamed on the 1968 film “Faces,” an influential New Hollywood film that saw Cassavetes become more emboldened to explore his naturalistic tendencies, with Rowlands playing a key supporting role as a chainsmoking, heavy drinking call girl who is all too happy to watch a marriage implode.
Rowlands soon began taking on leading roles in her husband’s films. In 1971’s “Minnie and Moskowitz,” she starred as the eponymous museum curator who struggles to adapt to middle age amid an abusive relationship. She earned her first Oscar nomination in 1974 for “A Woman Under the Influence,” Cassavetes’ landmark film in which she gave a masterful performance as a Los Angeles housewife slowly going insane. The film proved to be a defining moment in the couple’s respective careers, with Rowlands’ performance remembered by many as one of the definitive film roles in the history of cinema.
She continued to collaborate with Cassavetes until his death in 1989, with other highlights including her role as an aging stage actress coming to grips with her dwindling career in 1977’s “Opening Night” and her Oscar-nominated turn as a woman escaping the Mafia in “Gloria” in 1980.
Rowlands remained a prolific actress throughout her life, notably starring in films such as Woody Allen’s “Another Woman” in 1988 and her son Nick Cassavetes’ “The Notebook” in 2004. She won four Primetime Emmy Awards throughout the 2000s for various guest appearances on television. Her last role came in the 2014 film “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.” In June 2024, her family revealed that Rowlands had been battling Alzheimer’s Disease for the past five years.
Rowlands is survived by her three children, Nick, Alexandra, and Zoe Cassavetes.
