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Gena Rowlands, famous for her performance in the popular movie The Notebook, has sadly died at the age of 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Golden Globe winner is well-known for playing the older version of Allie, a character played by Rachel McAdams, in the 2004 movie directed by her son Nick Cassavetes, which also featured Ryan Gosling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A report from TMZ says that the actress passed away at her home in Indian Wells, California, on Wednesday afternoon, August 14.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She had her family around her, including her husband Robert Forrest and her oldest daughter, Alexandra Cassavetes, who is 58 years old. Her son came to see her multiple times during the week leading up to her passing, according to the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though the official cause of death hasn\u2019t been announced, Cassavetes shared that his mom had been fighting Alzheimer\u2019s disease for five years, similar to the sad character she played in The Notebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly back in June, the 65-year-old revealed that Rowland is now experiencing \u201cfull dementia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I asked my mom to act as older Allie, and we talked a lot about Alzheimer\u2019s and how important it is to be real about it. For the past five years, she has been dealing with Alzheimer\u2019s. Now, she\u2019s in full dementia. It\u2019s really wild because we experienced it together, she played the role, and now it\u2019s something we have to face ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When The Notebook came out, Rowlands shared her experiences about her mother\u2019s battle with Alzheimer\u2019s in an interview with Oprah\u2019s O Magazine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She mentioned, \u201cThe last movie I worked on, The Notebook, was really challenging for me because I played a character with Alzheimer\u2019s. I experienced that with my mom, and honestly, if Nick hadn\u2019t been the director, I probably wouldn\u2019t have taken the role \u2013 it was just too difficult. It was a hard experience, but the movie turned out to be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of Gena\u2019s best performances were in collaboration with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes. Credit: Silver Screen Collection \/ Getty<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Rowlands was born in Wisconsin in June 1930 and spent an amazing seven decades acting in movies and on stage. She decided to retire from Hollywood in 2015 when she was 84 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She started her career on Broadway, acting in plays such as Middle Of The Night and The Seven Year Itch. Later, in the 1950s, she got parts in TV shows like Top Secret, Robert Montgomery Presents, and Appointment With Adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, she started her movie career in the 1958 film The High Cost Of Loving, but she also kept showing up on different TV shows like The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Peyton Place, and 87th Precinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The late actress worked alongside her husband, John Cassavetes, who passed away in 1989. Together, they created 10 films over a span of 40 years, including titles like Faces (1968), Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977), and Love Streams (1984).<\/p>\n\n\n\n She got an Oscar nomination for her role in the movie Woman Under the Influence (1974), directed by Cassavetes, where she played a housewife dealing with mental health issues. She also starred in Gloria, where she acted as a woman who saved a young boy from gangsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n