Gena Rowlands WireImage.com Gena Rowlands , known for her role in hit romantic drama The Notebook as well as her work with filmmaker husband John Cassavetes , died on Wednesday, August 14, at the age of 94. Rowlands died at her home in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by family and friends at the time of her death, Deadline reported.
No cause of death has been announced, but Rowlands had been battling Alzheimer’s disease. TMZ was first to report the news. Us Weekly has reached out to Rowlands’ representatives.
Rowlands, an honorary Oscar recipient who also received two Academy Award nods, portrayed an Alzheimer’s-afflicted woman, the dementia-ridden Allie, in 2004’s The Notebook . The film was directed by her son, Nick Cassavettes . Her son revealed in June of this year that his mother — ironically — was actually suffering from the disease in real life.
“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,” he told Entertainment Weekly . “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.
” Speaking to O magazine in 2004, Rowlands discussed how her own mother had happened to have battled Alzheimer’s, and how that experience had affected her approach to taking on the role in The Notebook . You have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters By signing up, I agree to .