The death of anyone is tragic but at times, someone may pass away and thousands, if not millions of people are morning. That is the case with the star of the notebook, Gena Rowlands.
Gena Rowlands passed away at the age of 94 in her home in Indian Wells, California. She was surrounded by her family at the time of her death.
There is no indication as to why she passed away but one thing that is known is that she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and had been dealing with it for quite some time. Whether that played a part in her death or not is unknown.
Although she played many roles, her best-known part is Allie from the movie, ‘The Notebook.’ In the movie, she played an older version of Allie who also had Alzheimer’s. The younger Allie was played by Rachel Mcadams.
Not only was she a star of the movie, she also knew the director well. It was her son, Nick Cassavetes who directed it. A few months ago, he spoke about the upcoming 20th anniversary of the movie.
In the movie, an elderly man by the name of Duke is the character that is used for the unfolding of the romantic drama. He is reading a romantic story from his notebook to another nursing home resident, Allie, who was played by Gena Rowlands.
Cassavetes 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. She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
He also felt that it was a good thing that he worked on the film together with his mother. He talks about how it ‘holds up pretty good’ after 20 years and he is surprised that so much time has passed.
Another one of Rowlands’ performances that was well-known was from 1974. The movie, ‘A Woman under the Influence’ was directed by her husband. She plays a housewife struggling with mental illness in that movie and won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture.