Oscar-winning actress, Gena Rowlands, dies at 94

Oscar-winning actress, Gena Rowlands, has been announced dead at 94.

This was made known by her son, Nick Cassavetes, on Thursday morning, on Instagram but did not provide further details.

In one of the stories shared by Cassavetes, the caption reads, “an amazing strong talented woman has left us. Rest well, Gena Rowlands.”

Gena began her career on television in New York in the 1950s won the Emmy Award four times and was a two-time Golden Globe winner.

While receiving her honorary Oscar in 2015, Gena said, “What’s wonderful about being an actress is you don’t just live one life – yours – you live many lives.”

In 1974 and 1980, she was designated for two Academy Awards for her role in ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ and  ‘Gloria’ movies, respectively.

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Some of the movies she appeared in until her demise included ‘Hope Floats’, ‘Playing by Heart’,  ‘The High Cost of Loving’, ‘The Notebook’, ‘Broken English’, ‘Opening Night’, ‘Another Woman’, ‘Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks’, ‘Unhook the Stars’, ‘Lonely Are the Brave’, ‘Minnie and Moskowitz’, and ‘Faces’, amongst others.

Cassavetes disclosed to CNN in June 2023 that Gena had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder that gets worse over time. It’s characterized by changes in the brain that lead to deposits of certain proteins. Alzheimer’s disease causes the brain to shrink and brain cells to eventually die.

He said, “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,” Cassavetes told the publication. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”