News

We lost some entertainment giants in 2024.

Among the big-screen legends who died during the past 12 months were Donald Sutherland, James Earl Jones, Maggie Smith, Carl Weathers, Shelley Duvall, Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, Louis Gossett Jr., Anouk Aimée, Marisa Paredes and Gena Rowlands.

Related: Saying Goodbye: A Video Tribute To The Hollywood And Media Figures We’ve Lost In 2024

The TV world mourns the likes of Bob Newhart, John Amos, Phil Donahue, Linda Lavin, David Soul, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Martin Mull, Shannen Doherty, Michael Cole, Richard Lewis, Richard Simmons, James B. Sikking, Peter Marshall and Joe Flaherty.

Filmmakers and producers who left us include Norman Jewison, Roger Corman, Al Ruddy, Jon Landau, Lynda Obst, Jim Abrahams, Charles Shyer, Irv Wilson and Paolo Taviani.

The industry also paid tribute to such top executives as Charles Dolan, Paula Weinstein, Jamie Kellner, Richard Parsons, Gerald Levin and Paul Fox.

Broadway’s lights were a...

When devising the central conflict for her short film Sidney, writer/director Iris Breward set her opposing characters against each other by emphasising both of their weaknesses and in so doing, opens up a much wider conversation whilst also giving the audience a deserved laugh. Sidney, our central protagonist, is a classically trained clown whose career might not have reached the heights he was aspiring to, with financial pressures placing him in the awkward ‘jobbing’ arena of a children’s birthday party which will take an unexpected turn that no one wanted. Breward gives us a glimpse into the highly trained and diverse world of clowns, taking reference from classic characters such as Pierrot while adding the modern influence of the clowncore social media trend to form her aspiring performer. Sidney is very much a film of two halves both narratively and visually and a short we’re excited to...

When Kirk Douglas died in 2020 at the age of 103 (!), he left behind a massive legacy of over 90 films that even the most stalwart cineastes haven't been able to work their way through. Known for his affable smile and intense performances, Douglas is one of Hollywood's most famous leading men, and was the industry's most profitable actor throughout the 1950s. He was also a producing powerhouse, having started his own production company, Bryna Productions, which handled some of his best-known films. Bryna backed the Stanley Kubrick movies "Paths of Glory" and "Spartacus," as well as "The Vikings," "Seconds," "Seven Days in May," and, later on, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Douglas never lost sight of the evolving nature of film, rarely resting on trends or genres. 

In 1962, Bryna also backed a neo-Western called "Lonely Are the Brave." Set in the present day, "Brave" stars Douglas as a Korean War veteran...

The latest feature from Walter Salles tells the remarkable story of Eunice Paiva. Known as a human rights activist in Brazil, Paiva became a lawyer after her husband Rubens was disappeared during the Brazilian dictatorship, in 1971. The film follows her quest for justice all the way up to the modern day.

“I’m Still Here” marks the first feature film by Salles since 2012’s “On the Road,” though he directed shorts and a documentary about Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke. As a child Salles knew the Paiva family, though the film is not a memoir from his perspective.

Instead, it’s adapted from an autobiography by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the son in the family, and reorients the story around matriarch Eunice. She’s played in a fiercely concentrated, Gena Rowlands-caliber performance, by Fernanda Torres – and in a late-film cameo by Torres’s mother Fernanda Montenegro, 95, an Oscar nominee for Salles’s “Central Station.

Exclusive: Pamela Anderson says she has “danced between shame and beating myself up” — and she’s still here.

She has opened so many eyes with her stunning breakthrough performance, at age 57, playing Shelly, a veteran hoofer forced to hang up her heels in Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl. I think it’s one of the best screen performances of the year.

The breakthrough has been a long time coming. Even though Anderson cares not to dwell too much on her past, she embraces it for her art and has poured it into the role of Shelly.

“I wouldn’t change one thing about my life or I wouldn’t be here,” she declares.

“I’ve danced between shame and beating myself up about so many things or wondering what life would’ve been if I didn’t experience the things I did, even as a child, there’s so much,...

After breaking ground with his 2021 movie “Casablanca Beats,” which marked the first Moroccan feature to vie for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, filmmaker Nabil Ayouch (“Much Loved”) is achieving a new milestone with his latest movie, “Everybody Loves Touda,” which premiered at Cannes Premiere and is now eligible in all categories at the Oscars. It’s the first Moroccan film to do so.

“Everybody Loves Touda,” penned by Ayouch and his wife, the actor-turned-filmmaker Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”), tells the story a young poetess and singer known as a Shaeirat (Nisrin Erradi), who raises her deaf-mute son in a small Moroccan village. Hoping to give her son a better future and more opportunities in life, she moves with him to Casablanca where she faces setbacks. Erradi, who previously starred in Touzani’s feature debut, “Adam,” prepared for the part in “Everybody Loves Touda” for a...

Throughout 2024, we will continue to update this In Memoriam photo gallery with notable celebrity deaths from film, television, theater and music. Major entertainment figures to be honored in the 2024 gallery are TV legends Bob Newhart and Phil Donahue, Oscar/Tony/Emmy winner Dame Maggie Smith, Emmy/Tony/Grammy winner James Earl Jones, music legend and Grammy/Tony/Emmy winner Quincy Jones, Oscar winner Louis Gossett, Jr., Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Gena Rowlands, Oscar nominee Teri Garr, director/producer Norman Jewison, broadway legend Chita Rivera, country music superstars Kris Kristofferson and Toby Keith and actors Dabney Coleman, Donald Sutherland and Carl Weathers.

Featured in the 2023 gallery were Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Tina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Jeff Beck, Robbie Robertson and David Crosby, Oscar and Tony winner Alan Arkin, Oscar/Emmy/Tony winner Glenda Jackson, Oscar and Grammy winner Burt Bacharach, Oscar winner William Friedkin, Grammy legend Tony Bennett,...

It’s never easy when a beloved celebrity dies, and in 2024, we’ve seen some greats pass on. Stars like Shannen Doherty, Donald Sutherland, and Sister Wives star Garrison Brown have all passed so far this year.

But the hits just keep on coming.

Teri Garr arrives at the 10th Annual “Race to Erase Ms” at the Century Plaza Hotel on May 9, 2003 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Teri Garr, the legendary comic actress and singer known for her roles on TV and film, passes away on October 29th.

Her publicist Heidi Schaeffer told The Associated Press that Garr died of multiple sclerosis after struggling with health issues in recent years.

Teri is best known by multiple generations for a variety of projects. Some perhaps know her best as Inga, the sexy assistant in Mel Brooks’ 1974 film Young Frankenstein. The way she greeted Gene Wilder’s Dr.

It’s always fascinating to know the reasons why actors decide to go behind the camera for the first time. After all, the subject must have hit a very personal part of their being so as to take up the extraneous effort of mounting an entire story to the screen in a language that is mostly foreign to them. So, when Maggie Gyllenhall was asked why she decided to make The Lost Daughter (now streaming on Netflix), her answer assured me more than anything else.

She said that when she first read Elena Ferrante’s book that goes by the same name, her first line of thought was “Oh my god! This woman is so fucked up and I totally related to her. So am I so fucked up?” As funny as that sounds, the reason feels palpable. I mean, I have always wanted to see a mother on screen...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

NYFF Revivals begins with films by Robert Bresson, Marguerite Duras, Clive Barker, and more.

Film Forum

As The Devil, Probably continues in a new restoration, Lancelot du lac starts; Stand By Me screens on Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Johnnie To retrospective continues.

Anthology Film Archives

A Robert Beavers retrospective begins.

Roxy Cinema

Gloria plays Friday and Saturday, while prints of Opening Night and Minnie and Moskowitz also screen; Deep Red shows Friday; experimental shorts and City Dudes play on Saturday; Frederick Wiseman’s High School II screens on 16mm this Sunday, while Puzzle of a Downfall Child plays on 35mm.

Bam

Chantal Akerman’s Toute une nuit continues playing in a 4K restoration; The Long Walk Home screens on Friday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A retrospective of first-person documentaries continues; X: The...

The “In Memoriam” segment of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday paid tribute to a host of small-screen stars who have died in the past year, but users on social media were quick to point out the notable names that did not make the montage.

The poignant segment saw rapper Jelly Roll say a few words before performing his 2024 song “I Am Not Okay” as a montage of late stars was shown inside the Peacock Theater and on television. Among those included in the segment were Donald Sutherland, James Earl Jones, Martin Mull, Richard Lewis, Richard Simmons, Shannen Doherty, Gena Rowlands, Chance Perdomo and Carl Weathers.

There was general confusion online in some quarters due to the omission of Friends star Matthew Perry, who died Oct. 28, 2023 at 54. Perry’s absence was explained by the Television Academy paying a special tribute to the actor at the 74th edition of the Emmys held in January,...

Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Peter Marshall, Shannen Doherty, and more luminaries were honored during the heartfelt In Memoriam segment led by Jelly Roll at Sunday’s Emmy Awards. Jimmy Kimmel then hit the stage to crack a few jokes in honor of Newhart’s deadpan humor.

The country star started his heartstring-tugging performance with “I Am Not Okay,” his single about his struggles with mental health, by sharing a sweet message. “I believe that music is therapeutic. I believe that music can heal. I also believe that storytelling is just as cathartic,...

8:04pm Pt To close out the night, Catherine O’Hara comes out to present best comedy. After ripping up a fake envelope, she opens the real one and announces an absolute jawdropper of a result: Max’s Hacks, for its third season, has pulled off a massive upset over the second season of FX’s The Bear, the most-nominated comedy of the year and, this year, already the comedy with the most wins in a single season. It’s hard not to see this as a statement from TV Academy members that, as great as The Bear is — and it is truly great — this award is intended for shows that actually make people laugh, which season 2 of The Bear did not do much of, and which season 3, which was rolling out during voting for season 2, really did not do much of.

7:59pm Pt It’s so nice to see...

Gia De Sauvage is just starting her career onscreen, but she already has a model for the path she’d like to follow.

“I just absolutely adore Gena Rowlands, and I would love to have a career like hers,” the newcomer says.

She makes her debut in the new television movie, Nightmare in the Desert, the first of the cable network’s fall slate. The film is inspired by true events and sees De Sauvage as a young woman, Shae, returning home with her fiancé Chris (Tristan J. Watson) following the death of her father. The pair take a hike and the trouble begins as a man tracks them during the journey.

“It felt like a big family,” De Sauvage explains about the experience. “We all got along so well, and they were joking that it feels like going to summer camp.”

De Sauvage also saw it as an exercise...

Producers for the 76th annual Emmy Awards have been editing the special “In Memoriam” segment to be featured on Sunday’s ABC ceremony. Since the most recent ceremony was delayed until mid-January, there are only eight months of TV legends who have died instead of the typical 12 months.

We have assembled a list of people below who might be selected. Members of the academy’s TV Hall of Fame are host and producer Phil Donahue, anchor and journalist Robert MacNeil, lighting designer Bill Klages and actor and comedian Bob Newhart. Some of the previous Emmy winners and nominees include previous academy president Leo Chaloukian, actor Bill Cobbs, actor Dabney Coleman, actress Shelley Duvall, actor and writer Joe Flaherty, director Jerry Foley, actor Louis Gossett Jr., actor Bill Hayes, actor James Earl Jones, host Peter Marshall, actor and comedian Martin Mull, actress Gena Rowlands, actor James B. Sikking, actor Donald Sutherland and actor Carl Weathers.

When Gena Rowlands passed away last month at the age of 94, New Yorker critic Richard Brody referred to her as the greatest artist of all the actresses he had ever seen onscreen. It’s an assertion that might come across as hyperbole to someone who had never seen Rowlands’ collaborations with her husband John Cassavetes on “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Opening Night,” “Gloria,” and “Love Streams,” but even a cursory viewing of any of those performances quickly validates Brody’s claim. And while Rowlands’ work with Cassavetes is her most exalted (and properly so), she achieved great depths of emotional expression for other filmmakers like Woody Allen (“Another Woman”), Paul Schrader (“Light of Day”) and Paul Mazursky (“Tempest”) — not to mention her son Nick, who cast her in a beautiful late-career role in his tearjerker “The Notebook.”

This month both the American Cinematheque and the...

Before we dive into Winona Ryder’s picks from the Criterion Closet, we have some breaking news that takes precedent. In a stunning reveal this week, a poster on Reddit shared a photo with the Criterion community showing that their famous closet wasn’t an actual closet, but rather a set placed within a van.

The closet, is actually a van.

byu/throgmortal incriterion

A spokesperson for Criterion responded to IndieWire’s request for comment by confirming that its videos are actually filmed in a closet in Criterion’s office in New York City. Nevertheless, this photo may imply Criterion has plans of taking their closet on the road and social media is abuzz with intrigue.

Iconic actress Ryder stopped by the closet ahead of her film “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” premiering at Venice Film Festival and spoke of the space as if it were a holy sanctuary.

“I am so lucky...

Carol Kane probably deserves her own closet filled with classic films she’s been a part of, from “Dog Day Afternoon” to “The Princess Bride,” but for now, the Criterion Closet will have to do. In Criterion’s latest closet video, Kane reflects on influences like Bette Davis, as well as past collaborators like John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands, who she describes as a “queen and a goddess.”

“I’m Carol Kane, I’m an ac-tor, and I am so moved to be in this room — this closet — with all these extraordinary films, movies — I don’t know what you’re supposed to call them — but all the creativity. It’s breaking my heart in a good way,” said Kane at the beginning of the video.

As her first pick off the shelf, Kane grabbed “All About Eve” and discussed the effect the lead of the film, Bette Davis, had...

A peerless actress was Gena Rowlands. She was also the muse of actor and rightly renowned avant-garde filmmaker John Cassavetes (†1989), to whom she was married from 1954. It was an inspiration that was mutual. A number of great Cassavetes films are unthinkable without Rowlands. They married and had three children. Children who would also become filmmakers themselves. She started acting young and continued to act into old age, consequently having a career that spanned some seventy years from her first roles in films such as Shadows to later films such as 2004's The Notebook directed by her son Nick Cassavetes in which she plays a woman with dementia, the condition that would also affect her in old age. You could say she...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

In a tangential sense, no filmmaker working from 1960 onward would have gotten anywhere without the influence of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. But in a very real sense, Martin Scorsese has said he would have likely left film entirely had it not been for the support Cassavetes and Rowlands showed toward him early on in his career. Following the death of Rowlands last week, Scorsese released a statement paying tribute to her.

“Up there onscreen, there was no one else quite like her. That’s the kind of observation that’s often made about people after they’re gone, but in Gena’s case it happens to be true,” Scorsese wrote. “She had an extremely unusual combination of qualities. Her talent, which was extraordinary. Her bravery and commitment to her art formn— equally extraordinary. Her presence… this was someone who could hold a room by just walking in and standing there.

The 2004 romantic drama “The Notebook” pays tribute to filmmaker John Cassavetes through its portrayal of intimate relationships that transcend time. While known for its love story between characters played by actors Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, the film is also deeply connected to John Cassavetes and his wife and frequent collaborator Gena Rowlands.

Rowlands herself appears in “The Notebook” as the older version of the character Allie Calhoun. Her role serves to honor both her acclaimed prior work with Cassavetes as well as his legacy of independent filmmaking focused on authentic emotional depth.

One of Cassavetes’ most renowned films is 1974’s “A Woman Under the Influence,” which earned Rowlands an Oscar nomination for her raw and intimate performance as a housewife struggling with mental illness. Like “The Notebook,” it tackles complex themes of love, family, and the human experience.

“The Notebook” director Nick Cassavetes is the son of John and Gena,...

In the midst of their press tour for Zoë Kravitz’s feature directorial debut, “Blink Twice,” starring romantic partner Channing Tatum, the duo took a not-so-brief pit-stop at the Criterion Closet to score a bevy of cinematic treats. Many of their choices outlined their shared eclectic taste and emphasized a relationship largely based around a love for films of all kind.

“We’re so excited to be here, this is like a dream come true,” Kravitz said as she and Tatum began their shopping spree. “I grew up in video stores, so this is also just a nice feeling cause that’s not really a thing anymore, sadly.”

Though the video was shot prior to the death of Gena Rowlands and posted on the day the news broke, there’s a serendipitous homage to the late actor, as well her husband and collaborator John Cassavetes.

“We love Cassavetes,” Kravitz said...

by Cláudio Alves

The dedication at the end of Pedro Almodóvar' All About My Mother (1999).

Yesterday, as The Film Experience's first foray into honoring Gena Rowlands drew to a close, I asked the readers: Can you remember how you first encountered her?

It's an interesting query since the introduction to an artist can set so much of one's relationship with them going forward. Personally, it's a matter of fascination because I remember so well when and where I first met the goddess that Cassavetes immortalized in his films. At least, I know the moment I became aware of Rowlands as someone I should pay attention to and treasure. It wasn't through any of her works, not directly. Instead, this brush with my actressexual fate came at the end of a tomato-red melodrama beset by maternal madness and a Spanish twist. Yes, I discovered Gena Rowlands through the dedication at...

by Cláudio Alves

Gena Rowlands in Opening Night (1977) John Cassavetes

Two days ago, cinephiles worldwide were met with some sad news, tragic beyond belief. Gena Rowlands died at the age of 94 after a few years battling with dementia, as her son, Nick Cassavetes, had previously revealed to the public. It's a loss that defies comprehension because Rowlands' talent was just the same, a generational marvel whose importance can't be overstated. Cinema, especially independent American film, is what it is today because of her contribution. The same can be said about the art of screen acting, in general. So much so that even those who don't gel with her mercuriality must contend with Rowlands' place in the annals of history.

Even as I loathe to use the term 'undeniable,' Rowlands is the exception to the rule. Consider her undeniable influence on countless artists. Consider the undeniable mark she left on...

In the history of American movies, and, arguably, of movies in general, there has never been a partnership between a husband and wife as consequential as that of director John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.

Not only did the two make several masterpieces together, among them Faces, A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night. They managed to create a whole body of deeply personal features — shot completely outside of the studio system and often inside their own family home in the Hollywood Hills — that would usher in the era of what we now call “independent film.”

Surely, there had been some memorable director-actress duos before them, mostly in Europe: Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman, Federico Fellini and Giulietta Masina, Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, Michelangelo Antonioni and Monica Vitti. But in those cases, which definitely yielded their share of masterpieces as well, the director was the auteur and the actress his muse.

Martin Scorsese remembered Gena Rowlands on Thursday as an “extraordinary” actress and celebrated her formative independent film work with John Cassavetes for being “inspirations to generations of filmmakers and actors.”

“There was no one else quite like her,” Scorsese said in a statement to press. “That’s the kind of observation that’s often made about people after they’re gone, but in Gena’s case it happens to be true.”

Rowlands died Wednesday after years of living with Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that her son and “The Notebook” filmmaker Nick Cassavetes only revealed two months prior. While commercially known best for playing the older, coincidentally Alzheimer’s-stricken version of the character played by Rachel McAdams in the 2004 romance, Rowlands will be remembered for her fearless, transformative performances through the 1970s and ’80s, including her Oscar-nominated leading roles in Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria.”

“She had...

Every great screen performance expands the medium in its own way, giving audiences something to respond to, while offering fresh ideas to future actors. A select few can be said to have redefined the craft entirely: Orson Welles in “Citizen Kane,” Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront,” Toshiro Mifune in “Rashomon” and Gena Rowlands in “A Woman Under the Influence.”

Rowlands died Wednesday at age 94, half a century after “A Woman Under the Influence” premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1974. Rowlands was the last to go from among a tight clique of titans — actors who transformed modern cinema: Peter Falk, Seymour Cassel, Ben Gazzara and, of course, Rowlands’ late husband, actor-director John Cassavetes.

Younger audiences who know Rowlands only as the memory-challenged older woman in “The Notebook” (directed by her son Nick Cassavetes) or for her Emmy-winning turn in “Hysterical Blindness” owe it to themselves to investigate her most important work,...

Gena Rowlands, a celebrated actress with a career spanning over six decades, is best known for her compelling performances in a series of films that have left a mark on American cinema.

As previously reported on Monsters and Critics, Rowlands died at 94.

The legendary actress had Alzheimer’s disease, but her cause of death has not been disclosed.

Her collaborations with her husband, the acclaimed independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, resulted in some of their era’s most powerful and critically acclaimed films.

Following her death, many film watchers are wondering which of her films to stream.

Below is a ranking of five of Rowlands’ best movies based on their critical acclaim and lasting impact on film history.

Gena Rowlands’ best movies to watch

A Woman Under the Influence (1974) is often regarded as Rowlands’ most iconic role; the movie profoundly explores mental illness and domestic life.

Directed by John Cassavetes, the...

Gena Rowlands, the celebrated actress and muse of John Cassavetes, whose raw talent in films like Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, and Gloria secured her place among the greats of cinema, passed away on Wednesday at 94.

The actress died at her home in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by her family.

Rowlands was a groundbreaking actress renowned for her intense and emotionally charged performances.

Her portrayal of complex, often troubled women in films like A Woman Under the Influence and Opening Night earned her critical acclaim and multiple award nominations.

Rowlands’ fearless approach to acting broke new ground in portraying raw, unfiltered human emotions on screen.

Beyond her work with Cassavetes, she also enjoyed a successful career in television and other films, leaving a lasting legacy that includes her children.

Gena Rowlands’s children are all Hollywood stars

Nick Cassavetes is perhaps the most well-known among her children.

Gena Rowlands, the acclaimed actress known for her captivating roles in A Woman Under the Influence and The Notebook, passed away at the age of 94.

Rowlands died in the afternoon at her home in Indian Wells, California, on August 14, surrounded by her family.

While no official cause of death was provided, it is known that the retired actress had been battling Alzheimer’s, a poignant connection to her role as the elder Allie in The Notebook.

Per Variety, her passing was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent.

According to NPR, in 1950, Rowlands moved to New York to study acting at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts, where she met fellow student John Cassavetes.

However, she eventually left the academy and started her professional acting career, making her stage debut in a minor role in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night on Broadway.

Gena Rowlands’ son...

Yesterday, the world said goodbye to classic Hollywood actress Gena Rowlands. Rowlands was known for films like A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, The Skeleton Key and The Notebook. According to Deadline, Rowlands had passed at her home in Indian Wells, California. The cause of death was not yet announced; however, it is said that she was surrounded by family at the time of passing. The actress had been battling with Alzheimer’s disease for some time.

Rowlands debuted on the film scene with her first film in 1958, The High Cost of Living. She would have numerous titles on her resume that came from both movies and television. She would notably collaborate with her husband, director John Cassavetes, on a number of projects. The star would even garner a couple of Academy Award nominations for her work in the films A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, which were directed by Cassavetes.

Beloved actor Gena Rowlands has died at the age of 94, it has been confirmed. The star – best known for films like A Woman Under The Influence and Gloria, directed by her husband John Cassavetes – was renowned for her raw and uncompromising performances, making an indelible impact on cinema often while working outside of the Hollywood studio system. Rowlands passed away at home, following a previous diagnosis of Alzheimer’s.

While Rowlands made her big-screen debut in 1958’s The High Cost Of Loving, her cinematic collaborations with Cassavetes as director began in 1963 with A Child Is Waiting – and continued through the likes of 1968’s Faces, 1971’s Minnie And Moskowitz, 1974’s A Woman Under The Influence, 1977’s Opening Night, 1980’s Gloria, and 1984’s Love Streams. Their work together marked early examples of independent cinema. A Woman Under The Influence – for which Rowlands won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar...

Actress Gena Rowlands, winner of three Emmy Awards and an Honorary Academy Award in addition to two nominations, died on Wednesday as confirmed by the office of her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes. She had been living with Alzheimer’s Disease for five years and was 94 years old.

Rowlands began her career on Broadway in the 1950s, appearing in productions of “The Seven Year Itch” and “Middle of the Night.” She worked in early television, including revered anthology programs like “Studio One” and “The United States Steel Hour.” She also appeared on the jazzy detective program “Johnny Staccato” opposite her husband John Cassavetes.

It was with Cassavetes and his troupe, including Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara, and Seymour Cassel, that pretty much invented the prestige American independent film, with groundbreaking collaborations like “Faces,” “Minnie and Moskowitz,” and “Opening Night.” This led to Oscar nominations for her leading roles in “A Woman Under The Influence...

Gena Rowlands, known for her fearless film performances and collaboration with husband John Cassavetes, died on October 26th at her home in Indian Wells, California. She was 94 years old. Rowlands’ son Nick Cassavetes, a film director, confirmed her passing. Earlier this year, Rowlands had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Over a career that spanned six decades, Rowlands established herself as a versatile actress capable of complex, challenging roles. Her breakout role came in 1974 with A Woman Under the Influence, directed by John Cassavetes. Rowlands played a housewife struggling with mental illness, earning her first Oscar nomination for the raw, emotionally charged performance. Film critic Janet Maslin praised Rowlands’ “physical and emotional elasticity” in navigating her character’s shifting moods.

Rowlands went on to collaborate with Cassavetes in ten films, helping define independent cinema in the 1970s and 1980s. They included Faces (1968) and Opening Night (1977). Her role in Gloria (1980) earned a second Oscar nomination.

Subtle yet tough and fearless, the actor blazed a trail through American movies in the 70s – in particular in close collaboration with her husband John Cassavetes

• Gena Rowlands, star of A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, dies at 94

‘I was always a Broad! I can’t stand the sight of Milk!” This is Gena Rowlands at her awe-inspiring toughest in John Cassavetes’ extraordinary drama-thriller Gloria from 1980. She is sexy, smart, a match for any man. Rowlands was a strong, passionate heroine in the tradition of Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall. In fact, her director-husband John Cassavetes was in some ways Bogart to her Bacall. Rowlands staked a claim to the male prerogative of being sensual, dangerous and damaged; a natural survivor. In Gloria, and also in Woody Allen’s Another Woman (1988), in which she plays a severe philosophy professor, Rowlands wears a belted trenchcoat, the kind that Bogart would wear.

Gena Rowlands was remembered far and wide on film Twitter Wednesday as one of “the greatest actors to ever do it.”

News of the 94-year-old icon’s death came Wednesday evening, two months after her son and “The Notebook” director Nick Cassavetes revealed she had been living with Alzheimer’s disease for five years. Aside from contemporary commercial successes like “The Notebook,” the actress’ body of work included a string of formative John Cassavetes collaborations including “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria,” both for which she received an Academy Award nomination. She was also a four-time Emmy Award winner for her work in television.

As news of her death broke, tributes from fans poured in on X. Actor and comedian Michael Rapaport described Rowlands as “gorgeous and gritty.” He said wrote, “The Great Gena Rowlands has passed. Absolutely a game changing actress.”

The Great Gena Rowlands has passed. Absolutely a game changing actress.

Sad news in the land of Hollywood, as TMZ is reporting that Gena Rowlands, who played ‘Allie’ in The Notebook died the afternoon of Wednesday, August 14 at her Indian Wells, CA home. She was 94 years old.

As per reports, she was surrounded by family, including her husband Robert Forrest and daughter Alexandra Cassavetes. Reports also reveal that her director son, Nick Cassavetes, had been at the house quite frequently the week leading up to her passing.

Gena Rowlands, “The Notebook” Star – Cause Of Death

As of this writing, no official cause of death has been listed for the actress; however, she had been fighting Alzheimer’s.

Nick announced his mother’s condition on the 20th anniversary milestone of The Notebook, a movie he directed. Rowland’s character Allie in the film also battled the same illness.

Gena’s mother, actress Lady Rowlands, was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s before her passing.

The three-time Emmy winner has been celebrated for her vivid portrayals of strong, troubled women, including in 10 films directed by her first husband John Cassavetes

• Peter Bradshaw on Gena Rowlands: the fiercest, most incandescent star of US indie cinema

Gena Rowlands, the Oscar-nominated actor best known for the string of films she collaborated on with her husband, the director John Cassavetes, has died aged 94 her son, Nick Cassavetes, said on Wednesday. In 2024 Nick revealed that she had Alzheimer’s.

A successful actor before and after her films with John Cassavetes, it is nevertheless the string of films she made with her actor-turned-director husband that came to define her career. In Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Opening Night (1977), Gloria (1980) and Love Streams (1984), Rowlands played a series of groundbreaking roles as damaged and yearning women in emotionally committed performances of a kind all too rare in American cinema of the period.

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...

Gena Rowlands, whose illustrious career saw her star in A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, and The Notebook, died Wednesday at the age of 94.

The actress died at her home in Indian Wells and her death was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent, Variety confirmed. In June, her son, The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes, shared the news that his mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. In the film, Rowlands famously played the older version of Allie, Rachel McAdams’ character, who was also suffering from dementia.

Actress Gena Rowlands, who earned four Emmys and two Oscar nominations in a long and decorated Hollywood career, has passed away at the age of 94.

Rowlands died on Wednesday at her California home surrounded by family, our sister site Deadline reports. No official cause of death has been released, but she had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, according to her son Nick Cassavetes.

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Whenever an actor passes away, the expression "greatest to ever do it" is often tossed around. In the case of four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner Gena Rowlands, the legendary star of the stage, television, and film with a career spanning nearly seven decades, the expression feels somewhat inadequate. Her presence on screen was unwavering and incomparable, a captivating presence who could express a character's entire life story with the lift of an eyebrow or the lighting of a cigarette. She was the type of performer that actors aspired to be more like, and displayed an authentic sense of vulnerability that few have come close to matching. Her passing was first reported by TMZ. She was 94.

Rowlands was graced with an honorary Oscar in 2015, a year after her final on-screen performance. She had been nominated twice before, and one could easily argue that she should have taken home the statue both times.

Gena Rowlands, the wife and muse of John Cassavetes whose unvarnished abilities found in such films as Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night and Gloria put her in the pantheon of acting legends, died Wednesday. She was 94.

Rowlands died surrounded by family members at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to TMZ. A spokesperson for WME, where her son, writer-director Nick Cassavetes, has representation, confirmed her death. She had battled Alzheimer’s since 2019.

Rowlands received Oscar nominations for her performances in A Woman Under the Influence (1974), where she played an isolated, emotionally vulnerable housewife who lapses into madness, and Gloria (1980), where she sparkled as a pissed-off child protector who rails against the Mob.

She lost out to Ellen Burstyn of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Sissy Spacek of Coal Miner’s Daughter in those Academy Award races. Her greatness wasn’t formally acknowledged by the Academy...

Gena Rowlands, whose seminal and fearless performance in “A Woman Under the Influence” inspired a generation and who starred in many other John Cassavetes features as well as the romance “The Notebook,” died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was confirmed by the office of her son’s agent. In June, Nick Cassavetes, who directed his mother in “The Notebook,” shared that the three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Rowlands’ role as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 drama “A Woman Under the Influence,” written for her and directed by husband John Cassavetes, landed the actor the first of two Academy Award nominations. The other nom was for “Gloria” (1980), also directed by her husband. In November 2015, she was awarded an honorary Academy Award at the annual Governors Awards in recognition of her storied career.

“Working this long? I didn...

Gena Rowlands, the award-winning actress known for her roles in films such as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria, and The Notebook, has died at the age of 94.

Rowlands died Wednesday, August 14th, at her home in Indian Wells, California, according to TMZ. She had been battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Hailing from Cambria, Wisconsin, Rowlands originally got her start in theater, studying drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. Upon graduating, she starred in several repertory productions before making her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch. She later starred in the Broadway play Middle of the Night.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, Rowlands transitioned to a career in television. She starred in the syndicated television series Top Secret and made guest appearances on shows including Laramie, Riverboat, 77 Sunset Strip, and Dr. Kildare. She also appeared on several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

However,...

Gena Rowlands, the actress who played the senior version of Allie in The Notebook, has sadly passed away.

According to reporting by TMZ, the actress died on Wednesday (August 14). She was 94.

Keep reading to find out more…

The outlet reported that her family was with her at her home in Indian Wells, Calif. at the time of her passing. A cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

Gena‘s death comes months after her son Nick Cassavetes announced that she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. If you were unaware, her character Allie has the same illness in The Notebook.

“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, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s. She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it,...

Gena Rowlands, a multiple Emmy winner whose captivating work in A Woman Under the Influence and as the elder and dementia-ridden Allie in The Notebook also moved moviegoers, died Wednesday surrounded by family at her home in Indian Wells, CA. She was 94.

No cause of death was given, but the retired actress had been battling Alzheimer’s disease, ironic in light of her famous film role.

She retired from Hollywood in 2015 after earning four Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes and two Oscar nominations. Her Oscar noms included A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, both borne of collaborations with her late husband, John Cassavetes. The duo made an indelible mark on American independent film, not just for the often revelatory end product, but also for the DIY way they made their movies.

A Woman Under the Influence was prompted by Rowlands, who wanted to delve into the difficulties faced by...

Gena Rowlands, the iconic actress known for her role as the older Allie in “The Notebook” and a formative career in John Cassavetes classes like “A Woman Under the Influence” and “Gloria,” has died at the age of 94, according to media reports.

The honorary Oscar winner famously portrayed the elderly version of Rachel McAdams’ character in her son Nick Cassavetes’ 2004 romantic drama opposite the late James Garner. News of her death came two months after Cassavetes revealed his mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis — the same disease her character suffers from in “The Notebook.”

“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, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” he told EW. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it...

Gena Rowlands, best known for her collaborations with husband John Cassavetes and her role in The Notebook, has died. She was 94. The retired actress died Wednesday afternoon, according to TMZ. She had been battling Alzheimer’s disease. Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her mother, Mary Allen, whose stage name was Lady Rowlands, was an actress. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Reynolds, was a state senator and legislator. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin before moving to New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she met and fell in love with Cassavetes. They married in 1954. Rowlands made her television debut that same year in an episode of Top Secret. Her first film role was in the 1958 comedy The High Cost of Loving. Her early TV career included appearances on Johnny Staccato, Alfred Hitchcock Presents,...

TMZ reports today that the award-winning actress Gena Rowlands has died. Best known for the films she made with her late husband, John Cassavetes, Rowlands was an immensely talented performer with incredible range who acted on the stage, in television, and in more than 40 films. No cause of death has been revealed.