Remembering Gena Rowlands: ‘The Notebook’ Actress Lived ‘Many Lives’ Before Her Death at Age 94

Gena Rowlands admitted she didn’t expect the rapturous reception The Notebook received, but she understands why it happened.

“I think it was such a big hit because it was about the realization that love can last your whole life,” she said of the 2004 film, directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes.

The message “love can be eternal” resonated with audiences. The Notebook‘s passionate and feisty Allie Hamilton is far from the first spirited woman Gena, who died at 94 on August 14 after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, played during her long career.

She received Oscar nominations for 1974’s A Woman Under the Influence, about a wife on the cusp of a breakdown, and Gloria, a 1980 thriller about a gangster’s moll on the run with an orphaned boy. Those films “were really about people,” she said. “They weren’t about monsters or aliens.”

Born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin, Gena dropped out of college to study acting in New York. She thought marriage and children were not in her future until she met John Cassavetes, who would become her husband and her director in 10 films across four decades.

The movie business became a family affair when children Nick, Alexandra and Zoe entered their lives.

“We made half our movies in the house,” said Gena. It’s no surprise that all three of her children have careers in showbiz.

Gena lost John in 1989, and married Robert Forrest, a businessman, in 2012. Her acting career remained equally resilient. In the 2000s, she appeared on TV’s NCIS, Monk and Numb3rs. In 2014, she starred in her final film, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, about a senior citizen’s relationship with her dance instructor.

“You know what’s wonderful about being an actress? You don’t just live one life,” she said as she accepted an honorary Academy Award in 2015. “You live many lives.”