Gena Rowlands, the acclaimed Oscar-winning actress, has passed away at the age of 94.
Gatekeepers News reports that her son, Nick Cassavetes, confirmed her demise on Instagram, revealing that she had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
In a poignant twist, Rowlands portrayed a character struggling with Alzheimer’s in the 2004 film “The Notebook.”
Cassavetes recalled: “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… now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s… She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
Throughout her illustrious career, Rowlands appeared in numerous films, including “The High Cost of Loving,” “Faces,” “Opening Night,” and “Broken English.”
She was a four-time Emmy Award winner and a two-time Golden Globe winner, with two Academy Award nominations for her roles in “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria,” both directed by her late husband, John Cassavetes.
In 2015, Rowlands received an honorary Oscar for her “extraordinary lifetime achievement” in cinema.
