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Gena Rowlands, a Hollywood legend, starred in unforgettable films like A Woman Under the Influence. Rowlands and John Cassavetes' disastrous first date led to a legendary 35-year marriage. Rowlands' Hollywood legacy includes accolades like the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

The decorated and endlessly talented Gena Rowlands was one of the silver screen's most unique performers, having dazzled audiences all across the world with her unforgettable roles in films like A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night, Another Woman, and The Notebook. The recipient of numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, four Emmys, and the prestigious Silver Bear for Best Actress, Rowlands dominated Hollywood for nearly 70 years.

Her enduring personal and professional relationship with innovative actor and director John Cassavetes also helped elevate the gifted duo, who would go on to collaborate on 10 films together over the course of more than 20 sensational years. The Tinseltown power couple left an...

Love Streams is a profound character study showing Rowlands' and Cassavetes' brilliance. The film won prestigious awards and garnered critical acclaim for its emotional performances. Rowlands' impressive legacy includes acclaimed collaborations with her husband and iconic roles.

With a sensational career spanning nearly seven decades, the late and great Gena Rowlands was a staple in Hollywood and dazzled the masses with her unique and commanding silver screen performances. Known for both her personal and professional relationship with her talented filmmaker/actor husband John Cassavetes, Rowlands was a constant presence in the entertainment industry and worked with some of the cinema's most celebrated stars, including Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Judy Garland, and Peter Falk.

Lauded as one of the greatest actresses of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Rowlands collaborated with her prominent husband in 10 films (including seven of his original pictures), with the 1984 drama Love Streams becoming one of the actress' most praised and celebrated performances.

Quick Links Gena Rowlands' Powerhouse Career Rowlands' Mabel Goes From Bad to Worse Why Rowlands' Performance Is the Best of the 1970s

The entertainment industry lost a legendary Hollywood titan with the passing of Gena Rowlands on August 14, 2024. The 2-time Oscar nominee and 2016 Academy Award honoree was a pioneering actress in independent cinema who, along with her husband John Cassavetes, turned in some of the rawest and most realistic indie films of the '60s and '70s. While younger generations may recognize her performance in her son Nick Cassavetes' The Notebook, cinephiles will never forget Rowland's breathtaking performance in A Woman Under the Influence.

Despite the iconic movie performances throughout the 1970s, including Gene Hackman in The French Connection, Marlon Brando in The Godfather, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, and Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, none outrank the convincing candor of Rowlands' work in A Woman Under the Influence.

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.

Gena Rowlands passed away at age 94. She had a prolific career in film and television, including work with late husband John Cassavetes. Rowlands was best known for her role in The Notebook, where she played the older version of Allie Calhoun.

Gena Rowlands has passed away at the age of 94. Rowlands was an American actor in films, stage productions, and television, who was born in Wisconsin in 1930. In addition to having her own career, she had a high-profile family that included a 35-year marriage with prolific filmmaker John Cassavetes. She shared three children with Cassavetes, including Nick Cassavetes, who went on to be a filmmaker himself and directed The Notebook, a movie in which Rowlands starred.

According to TMZ, Rowlands has died. She was 94. The actor passed away in her home on Wednesday, August 14, surrounded by her family members. No official cause of death has been revealed for Rowlands, but...

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...

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, 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,...

Robert C. Jones, an Oscar-winning writer and editor whose credits include It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Coming Home and Love Story, has died. He was 84.

“It is with deep sadness that I am writing to tell you the passing of Robert C. Jones, who was a celebrated editor and screenwriter, and a beloved professor at our School,” said Elizabeth Daley of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, where Jones served as a professor for 15 years.

Jones was born on March 30, 1936 in Los Angeles. His foray into film work began upon his drafting into the U.S. Army, when he joined the Army Pictorial Center from 1958 to 1960 as a film editor. At the Pictorial Center he edited Army training films, documentaries and several segments of the television program The Big Picture.

After his Army stint, Jones further developed his editing skills for A Child Is Waiting...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

As far as movies about shattered states of masculinity go, you can’t get any more raw, personal, or up-close than John Cassavetes’ 1970 “Husbands.” The filmmaker’s meandering, laidback style is well-suited to this chamber dramedy led by Cassavetes and his pals Peter Falk and Ben Gazzara. While storytelling in 2020 is pivoting fiercely away from tales of white, straight male egos, it’s fascinating to look back at “Husbands” as a cracked reflection of the times.

In 1971, feminist author and activist Betty Friedan wrote an editorial for The New York Times hailing “Husbands” as “the strongest statement of the case for women’s liberation I have yet seen on stage or screen,” and that the film tackled “the alienation, loneliness, [and] un-met need...

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By Todd Garbarini

The films of John Cassavetes are an acquired taste. Long considered to be the father of the modern independent film movement, his unorthodox style to acting and filmmaking notoriously drove some of his performers crazy while also receiving kudos and accolades from others. Like most filmmakers of his ilk, his work was best seen in independently owned movie theaters in New York City where films generally played for weeks or even months on end to a combination of both rave reviews and decent box office, two ingredients necessary to ensure securing funding for future projects. His directorial debut, Shadows (1958), depicted a romantic relationship between a white man and an African-American woman and the tumult that their relationship brought to their families. The film was unorthodox not only in its subject matter but in its approach to filmmaking. The film possesses...

John Cassavetes’ breakthrough picture gets the Criterion treatment, with fine new extras that take us back to a moment when the American Independent movement broke through to the big theaters, with bigger stars. It’s 142 minutes of intense improvisation during which Cassavetes, Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk challenge, tease and bully fellow performers into the director’s vision of performance artistry. The full title on-screen raises the bar pretty high: Husbands: A Comedy About Life, Death and Freedom.

Husbands

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1029

1970 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 131 142 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date May 26, 2020 / 39.95

Starring: Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Jenny Runacre, Jenny Lee Wright, Noelle Kao, John Kullers, Meta Shaw, Leola Harlow.

Cinematography: Victor Kemper

Produced by Al Ruban

Written and Directed by John Cassavetes

Is John Cassavetes coming into style, or is he just being rediscovered for the fifth time? His impassioned films receive strong critical...

“Come on, come on, I’d love it — don’t hang back!” dares Gloria Swenson, brandishing a gun at three mobsters that know she means business. Gena Rowlands is electric as a tough New York ex- gangland moll who finds that her maternal instincts make her deadlier than the male. John Cassavetes’ commercial crowd-pleaser is also a smart, sassy gangland mini-classic.

Gloria

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1980 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 123 min. / Street Date August 21, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Gena Rowlands, Buck Henry, John Adames, Julie Carmen, Lupe Garnica, Jessica Castillo, Basilio Franchina, Val Avery, Tom Noonan.

Cinematography: Fred Schuler

Film Editor: George C. Villaseñor

Original Music: Bill Conti

Produced by Sam Shaw

Written and Directed by John Cassavetes

Do you have a list of movies that you’ll watch again, just to enjoy a particular actor’s performance? Gena Rowlands is one of those people that pull you in.

Presenting the Supporting Actresses of '63. Well well, what have we here? This year's statistical uniqueness (the only time one film ever produced three supporting actress nominees) and the character lineup reads juicier than it actually is - your Fab Five are, get this: a saucy wench, a pious auntie, a disgraced lady, a pillpopping royal, and a stubborn nun.

The Nominees 

from left to right: Cilento, Evans, Redman, Rutherford, Skalia

In 1963 Oscar voters went for an all-first-timers nominee list in Supporting Actress. The eldest contenders would soon become Dames (Margaret Rutherford and Edith Evans were both OBEs at the time). Rutherford, the eventual winner, was the only nominee with an extensive film history and she was in the middle of a hot streak with her signature role as Jane Marple which ran across multiple films from through 1961-1965. In fact, Agatha Christie had just dedicated her new book "The...

What on odd year is 1963 in the history of Judy Garland. 1964 marks the last year of Judy Garland's film career, and the boom of Judy's television career. The first of Judy's final two movies reunited Judy Garland with producer Stanley Kramer and actor Burt Lancaster, with whom she'd worked only two years before in Judgment at Nuremburg. By the early 1960s, Kramer was establishing himself as the prestige producer of hard-hitting social issue cinema. A Child Is Waiting, about an institution for developmentally challenged children, was no different.

The Movie: A Child is Waiting (Universal, 1963)

The Songwriter: Marjorie D. Kurtz

The Players: Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster, Gena Rowlands, directed by John Cassavetes

The Story: While the majority of Judy Garland's career was dominated by Technicolor musical extravaganzas, the last few films of her career do signal an attempt at darker, "more serious" work. Surrounded by Method artists like Rowlands,...

A Child is Waiting: Delpy’s Return to RomCom a Mixed Bag

Julie Delpy has managed to balance a terrific (and prolific) career as an actress and director, breaking out over the past decade as a pragmatic purveyor of romantic entanglements thanks to her twin titles 2 Days in Paris (2007) and 2 Days in New York (2012). Although The Countess (2008), her curious English language examination of the bloodthirsty historical figure Countess Bathory was unfortunately belabored, her tendency to portray complex romantic scenarios masquerading as fluff has proven to be her overarching strength. Which is exactly why her latest, Lolo, a sometimes pleasant endeavor, feels like more of a crass disappointment than it really is. Examining an overworked single mother’s attempt to rediscover romance despite the secret sabotage of her spoiled adult child, the narrative’s dependence on familiar tropes, not to mention the neglect of its central romance, bears remarkable similarity...

Though it’s a famously compromised vision, to be sure, director John Cassavetes’ third film, A Child is Waiting, represents an important cinematic juncture. Meant to highlight society’s cruelty exacted upon handicapped children via behind-the-scenes details of a new cutting edge school run by an objective physician, the film’s noble ambitions were unfortunately marred by creative forces in disagreement.

After the fallout of his experiences with studio filmmaking, Cassavetes wouldn’t return until 1968 with the landmark Faces, and thus begin building a filmography earning him the moniker ‘father of independent cinema.’ And yet, there’s a scarred, dignified beauty about this troubled motion picture, perhaps as easily identifiable as the warring schools of thought amongst its main protagonists in the film.

A box office failure, it received a cool critical reception, disowned by its director after he was fired in post-production by producer Stanley Kramer. It’s unavoidable...

Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.

Note: With Black Friday approaching and many deals already underway, this week’s column will be dedicated to the event as we highlight some of our favorite deals (see all of them here). Check out our rundown below, with updates as they arrive, and if you’re looking for new Blu-ray releases, there are four definite essential releases this week: Akira Kurosawa‘s Ikiru, D.A. Pennebaker‘s Dont Look Back, the excellent animation Shaun the Sheep, and The Quay Brothers: Collection.

Gena Rowlands, who turns 85 today, is a cinema nonpareil who showed many faces in the films of her husband: a broken-down housewife in "A Woman Under the Influence," a washed-up thespian in "Opening Night," a desperate call-girl in "Faces." Cassavetes originally wrote "A Woman Under the Influence," the raw story of a lovably mad housewife who is also a danger to herself, as a play for his muse and partner. But it proved to be too exhausting for a stage production and so the maverick indie director turned to family and friends, including Peter Falk, who co-stars in the film as Rowlands' patient husband, for money and rounded up AFI students to make this volatile film that nabbed them both Oscar nominations. Listen below to a rare 90-minute interview about the film, and filmmaking. This was Rowlands fifth pairing with Cassavetes after "Shadows," "A Child Is Waiting," "Faces" and "Minnie and Moskowitz.

Cassavetes originally wrote "A Woman Under the Influence," the raw story of a lovably mad housewife who is also a danger to herself, as a play for his muse and partner Gena Rowlands. But it proved to be too exhausting for a stage production and so the maverick indie director turned to family and friends, including Peter Falk, who co-stars in the film as Rowlands' patient husband, for money and rounded up AFI students to make this volatile film that nabbed them both Oscar nominations. Listen below to a rare 90-minute interview about the film, and filmmaking. This was Rowlands fifth pairing with Cassavetes after "Shadows," "A Child Is Waiting," "Faces" and "Minnie and Moskowitz." Together they would go on to make some of the most startling films of the century, from "Opening Night" to "Love Streams." Watch a Beautiful Tribute Reel to Gena Rowlands...

Before inimitable blonde bombshell Gena Rowlands became one half of an indie "it" couple alongside actor/director John Cassevetes, she had her start on television and in the films "High Cost of Living" and "Lonely Are the Brave." She starred in Cassavetes' early (and seemingly for-hire effort) "A Child Is Waiting" before busting out of the screen in his excruciatingly intense black-and-white chamber drama "Faces" (1968). In 1975, she was Oscar-nominated for the role that defines her career as a lovable but severely mentally unwound housewife in "A Woman Under the Influence." Back in January, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded the cinema nonpareil its Career Achievement Award. In spirit, Lafca member Chuck Wilson and filmmaker Matt Amato put together this career-spanning reel (below), with sound-bytes from Rowlands herself overlapping the actress' most alluring screen moments.

The stage, TV and screen actress is best known for her stellar work on ten films directed by her husband John Cassavetes which started with “A Child Is Waiting” (1963), “Shadows” (1959) and “Faces” (1968) and continued through two Oscar-nominated performances in "Woman Under the Influence" (pictured, 1975) and "Gloria" (1981); their last film together was “Love Streams” (1984). The Lafca gave Cassavetes the career achievement award in 1986--this is the first husband and wife team to be so rewarded in the group's 40 year history. Rowlands began her career on the New York stage in the mid-1950s and moved to television, marryingCassavetes in 1954 and made 10 films with him, from Rowlands won four Emmys --“The Betty Ford Story” (1987), “Face of a Stranger” (1991), “Hysterical Blindness” (2003) and “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie” (2004)--and two Golden Globes (“The Betty Ford Story” and “A Woman Under the Influence.")....

Riffing on Terek Puckett’s terrific list of director/actor collaborations, I wanted to look at some of those equally impressive leading ladies who served as muses for their directors. I strived to look for collaborations that may not have been as obviously canonical, but whose effects on cinema were no less compelling. Categorizing a film’s lead is potentially tricky, but one of the criteria I always use is Anthony Hopkins’s performance in Silence of the Lambs, a film in which he is considered a lead but appears only briefly; his character is an integral part of the story.

The criteria for this article is as follows: The director & actor team must have worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in a minimum of 2 must-see films.

One of the primary trends for the frequency of collaboration is the...

Burt Lancaster on TCM: The Leopard, Scorpio, The Killers I haven't watched Michael Winner's Scorpio (1973), an unflattering portrayal of Us foreign policy and the CIA that reunited Lancaster with his The Leopard co-star Alain Delon. As per the TCM synopsis, "a CIA hit man [Lancaster] is stalked by a former partner [Delon] when the agency turns on him." A Man for All Seasons' Best Actor Oscar winner Paul Scofield and Gayle Hunnicutt are also in the cast. Robert Siodmak's 1946 film noir The Killers is one of the best-looking efforts in the genre thanks to Elwood Bredell's glistening black-and-white cinematography. Although The Killers turned newcomer Lancaster into a major star, as far as I'm concerned this adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story belongs to Ava Gardner; in fact, The Killers could just as easily have been called "The Leopardess (La gattaparda)." Edmond O'Brien co-stars. For The Killers, Siodmak...

Claudia Cardinale, Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, The Leopard Burt Lancaster is Turner Classic Movies' "Summer Under the Stars" featured star today, August 25. TCM is presenting 11 Burt Lancaster movies, including two premieres: The Leopard and Scorpio. [Burt Lancaster Movie Schedule.] A powerful but hammy leading man who developed into a first-rate mature actor-star in movies such as Luchino Visconti's Conversation Piece and Louis Malle's Atlantic City, Lancaster had a long, eclectic, and prestigious career both in Hollywood and abroad. Imagine Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, James Stewart, Clark Gable, or John Wayne working with Visconti and Malle, not to mention Bernardo Bertolucci (Novecento / 1900), John Cassavetes (A Child Is Waiting), and Bill Forsyth (Local Hero). TCM is now showing Cassavetes' A Child Is Waiting (1963), quite possibly the director's most accessible — i.e., commercial — effort. Produced by Stanley Kramer, a filmmaker with a strong (at times overly so) sense of (liberal) social commitment, and directed by...

The Lincoln Center and the Paley Center here in NYC have joined forces to celebrate the all-singing all-dancing legend that is Judy Garland! 

Shout 'Hallelujah', c'mon get happy!"

Once upon a time she was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer." Few celebrities have ever earned their PR self-mythologizing titles the way Judy G did. There's just no beating her for musical pleasure and cathartic heartbreak. And as if her sensational singing and dancing weren't enough, she was a fine actress, too!

I missed the first week of the celebration being in Michigan but I'll see what I can catch for the remainder of the summer program which ends August 9th. If you're not in New York City, you can always follow along at home as best you can with an impromptu DVD festival.

 

Still to come in the festival are...

Young Judy:

Everybody Sing (1938), For Me and My Gal (1942), Presenting Lily Mars...

Impressive retrospective of Judy Garland.s films will feature 31 titles including a presentation of seldom seen short films and rarities as well as a special .sing-along. screening of The Wizard Of Oz.

On the occasion of what would have been Judy Garland.s 89th birthday, the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Paley Center have announced the details today for Fslc.s comprehensive retrospective of the peerless film icon.s work, All Singin., All Dancin., All Judy! which will screen at the Walter Reade Theater July 26 . August 9 and The Paley Center.s comprehensive retrospective of Garland.s television work,Judy Garland: The Television Years which will be presented July 20 . August 18.

With autumn marking the 75th anniversary of Judy Garland’s feature film debut (Pigskin Parade, 1936), the Film Society of Lincoln Center will screen 31 titles from July 26 . August 9, including each of her big-screen acting performances, to pay tribute to...

We at Mubi think that celebrating the films of 2010 should be a celebration of film viewing in 2010. Since all film and video is "old" one way or another, we present Out of a Past, a small (re-) collection of some of our favorite of 2010's retrospective viewings.

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This is a list of older movies I saw for the first time in 2010—not necessarily the best, but the ones that gave me the greatest sense of discovery. It’s a sad commentary on contemporary film culture that only five of the twelve films I mention are available on Netflix.

Routine Pleasures (Jean-Pierre Gorin, USA, 1986)

An essay film from the Godard’s former collaborator during his leftist Dziga Vertov Group days. The movie begins as a documentary about a group of model train enthusiasts in San Diego who have constructed an elaborate imaginary world with enormous and minutely detailed landscapes and a...