Gena Rowlands, an award-winning US actress best known for starring in the films of her first husband, director John Cassavetes, died at age 94, according to US media reports. Rowlands died surrounded by family at her home in Indian Wells, California, US entertainment publication TMZ reported. No official cause of death was immediately given, but Rowlands’s son Nick Cassavetes said in June she had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for the past five years, according to the New York Times.

Rowlands starred in 10 films by John Cassavetes, and was married to him for nearly 35 years until his death in 1989. Starting in the 1960s, the couple formed an enchanting and explosive on-screen partnership over three decades that explored themes of passion and self-destruction against a backdrop of alcohol and infidelity.

In what many consider her finest role, Rowlands captured to devastating effect the descent of a housewife into mental illness in “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), bringing her the first of two Oscar nominations. “Incapable of an unreal moment,” said Woody Allen of the actress, whom he cast in his 1988 film “Another Woman.” “Whatever I say about Gena isn’t enough because she’s so incredible,” said Winona Ryder, quoted in the LA Times in 1992 when the two co-starred in Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth.”

US actress Gena Rowlands arrives to attend the screening of "The Neon Bible" on May 23, 1995, during the 48th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 23, 1995.

A storied career

Rowlands was born on June 19, 1930, in Cambria, Wisconsin, into a cultured middle-class family. Her father was a state senator and her mother was a painter and occasional actress. She enrolled in New York’s American Academy of Drama and in 1953 met Cassavetes, a fast-talking and exuberant Greek-American. A year later they were married. It was their collaboration that generated her stand-out performances, the highlight arguably being “A Woman Under the Influence” which also brought an Oscar nomination for Cassavetes as director.

Rowlands was captivating as housewife Mabel who descends into madness after years of quiet, complicated dominance by her hardworking, silent husband, played by Peter Falk. In 1989, Cassavetes died from liver failure after years of alcoholism. Rowlands continued to make films and also worked for television, winning four Emmys.

She and Cassavetes had three children, all of whom have gone on to work in film and television. Her son Nick directed her in “The Notebook” alongside Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in 2004. In 2012, she married retired businessman Robert Forrest and in 2015 was awarded an honorary Academy Award, the same year she retired from acting. — AFP