Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actresses to ever play the craft and a leading figure in independent cinema as the star of her director husband John Cassavetes’ groundbreaking films, has died. She was 94.
Gena Rowlands’ death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. He revealed earlier this year that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease. According to TMZMme Rowlands died Wednesday at his home in Indian Wells, California.
Operating outside the studio system, husband-and-wife team John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class and everyday people in films such as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria And Faces.
Rowlands made 10 films over four decades with Cassavetes, including Minnie and Moskowitz in 1971, Opening Night in 1977 and Love Streams in 1984.
She received two Oscar nominations for two of them: A Woman Under the Influence in 1974, in which she plays a wife and mother who cracks under the weight of domestic harmony, and Gloria in 1980, about a woman who helps a young boy escape the mafia.