Famed Actress Gena Rowlands Dies

(Associated Press) – Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and who later charmed audiences in her son’s tear-jerker “The Notebook,” has died.

She was 94.

Rowlands’ death was confirmed Wednesday by representatives for her son, the filmmaker Nick Cassavetes.

He revealed earlier this year that his mother had Alzheimer’s disease.

Operating outside the studio system, the husband-and-wife team of John Cassavetes and Rowlands created indelible portraits of working-class strivers and small-timers in such films as “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Gloria” and “Faces.”