In her career that spans over 50 years Gena Rowlands, born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands on June 19th 1930, has establishes herself as one of the finest actresses ever to appear on screen.
The Wisconsin native attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and then started performing in plays on Broadway and all over the USA, appearing among others with legendary actor Edward G. Robinson (Double Indemnity, Key Largo).
In the mid 50s Rowlands began getting roles in several TV-shows, one of them being in “Johnny Staccato” starring her husband John Cassavetes, who would become the pioneer of independent cinema. Rowlands’ marriage to Cassavetes would not only define her private life but also her career, she and her husband became steady collaborators. In 1963 she starred in Cassavetes “A Child is Waiting” opposite Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland and in 1968 in “Faces” which received 3 Oscar nominations. As a disillusioned woman falling in love again in 1971’s „Minnie and Moskovitz“ opposite “Faces” co-star Seymour Cassel, Gena Rowlands again proved her talent.
Her big breakthrough though was her performance as Mabel Longhetti in “A Woman Under the Influence”, written and directed by her husband. Rowlands played a mentally-unstable mother of three and wife to Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk). This performance cemented her status as legendary performer and is rightfully seen as one of the best works by an actress put on film. Rowlands won a Golden Globe as well as the Best Actress awards from the Kansas Film Critics and the National Board of Review. At the Academy Awards she and her husband, who was nominated for directing “A Woman Under the Influence” lost though. While Francis Ford Coppola took the directing honors for the classic “The Godfather:Part II”, Ellen Burstyn won Best Actress for Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”.
In 1977 Rowlands again starred in a movie written and directed by John Cassavetes, “Opening Night”. Gena Rowland plays Myrtle Gordon, an actress who suffers from the traumatic experience of seeing one of her fans dying. This performance, while being brilliant, was pretty much overlooked again except for winning the Best Actress award at the Berlin Film Festival and receiving a Golden Globe nomination. Nominated that year at the Oscar’s were Diane Keaton (“Annie Hall”), Jane Fonda (“Julia”), Marsha Mason (“The Goodby Girl”), Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft (both for “The Turning Point”).
This performance was followed-up with the TV-movie “A Question of Love” in which Rowlands played a lesbian mother fighting for custody for her son. The film also starred Jane Alexander as her lover.
In the drama “Strangers: The story of a Mother and Daughter” she starred as a terminally-ill woman trying to make peace with her mother, played by Bette Davis.
In 1981 Rowlands joined the Best Actress line-up at the Oscars again for her performance as a woman trying to protect a boy from the mafia in “Gloria”. This film was also directed and written by her husband. The Oscar however went to Sissy Spacek for her portrayal of country singer Loretta Lynn in “Coal Miner’s Daughter”.
One of her last collaborations with John Cassavetes would be “Tempest” based on the play by William Shakespeare.
For “An Early Frost” (1986) in which she played the mother of a young man suffering from AIDS, Rowlands picked up her first Emmy nomination. One year later she potrayed Betty Ford, a performance for which she won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award.
In 1989 John Cassavetes died, leaving Gena and their three children Nick, Zoe and Alexandra (all directors, actors and writers) behind.
Rowlands won her second Emmy Award in 1992 for playing a widow who must deal with her new financial situation in “Face of a Stranger” which also starred Tyne Daly and Cynthia Nixon. The same year she was also nominated for a Golden Globe for “Crazy in Love” opposite Holly Hunter.
This marked the second time Rowlands worked with Hunter, both actresses also appeared in “Once Around” directed by Lasse Halström in 1991.
Gena Rowlands also worked with Martha Collidge and Jim Jarmusch before teaming up with her son Nick for “Unhook the Stars” as an elderly woman befriending a young single-mother (Marisa Tomei). Both actresses received SAG-Award nominations for their work.
She worked with Lasse Halström again in “Something to Talk About” alongside Julia Roberts and in Nick Cassavetes' “She’s So Lovely”. In 1998 Gena Rowlands and Sean Connery played an elderly couple in “Playing by Heart” a film about life and love in L.A.
In 2002 Rowlands picked up another Emmy nomination for her performance as an overbearing mother in “Wild Iris”. She lost to co-star Laura Linney who played her widowed daughter with much intensity.
In 2002’s “Hysterical Blindness”, directed by Mira Nair, Rowlands gave yet another touching performance of a woman who has to deal with her emotionally damaged daughter (Uma Thurman in a career-best performance), while experiencing love once again. For this film (I recommend “Hysterical Blindness” to everyone, an intense film with superb writing, directing and acting) Rowlands won her third Emmy Award. In 2003 she also won a Daytime Emmy for the children’s film “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie”.
For her performance in the smash-hit “The Notebook” (directed by her son Nick, based on a Nicholas Sparks novel) Rowlands again earned rave reviews.
Rowlands then starred in Hollywood fare like “The Skeleton Key” and “Taking Lives” before writing and starring in a segment of the wonderful “Paris, je t’aime”. In 2007 she played woman suffering from cancer in “If God Were the Sun” (another Emmy and SAG nomination) and Rowlands also provided the voice of the grandmother in the successful animated feature “Persepolis”.
Now Academy members read this, think a little and then decide who should get the next Honorary Award….
