Gena Rowlands, an award-winning US actress best known for starring in the films of her first husband, director John Cassavetes, died Wednesday 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 he died 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.”
