Gena Rowlands (born June 19 1930) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, four-time Emmy Award-and two-time Golden Globe Award-winning American actress.

Biography

Early life

Rowlands was born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison, Wisconsin,^[1] and was raised in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father, Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and a state legislator,^[2] and her mother, Mary Allen (née Neal), was a painter and housewife originally from Arkansas.^[3][4] The family moved to Washington, D.C. in 1939 when Edwin was appointed to a position in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1942 when he was appointed as branch manager of the Office of Price Administration,^[5] and later to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Gena attended the University of Wisconsin from 1947 to 1950,^[6] where she was a popular student already renowned for her beauty.^[7] She left for New York City to study drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Career

Rowlands performed in stock companies, 1951?1953, and at the Provincetown Playhouse. In 1952?1955, Rowlands went from understudy to lead role in the original Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch, and toured in a national production of the play. She opened and starred in Middle of the Night (1956) opposite film icon Edward G. Robinson.

She guest starred in several anthology television series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, among many others, in 1955. She made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. In 1961-1962, she starred as the deaf-mute wife of Robert Lansing on NBC's 87th Precinct televison series. In 1964, she was cast in ABC's Peyton Place nighttime soap opera.

Teaming with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, whom she married in 1954, Rowlands starred in the television production Staccato, and the films A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Gloria (nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress), Love Streams, Minnie and Moskowitz, She's So Lovely, and A Woman Under the Influence (Academy Award nomination for Best Actress).

In 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed made-for-TV movie An Early Frost. In recent years, she has appeared in Paulie and in Mira Nair's HBO movie Hysterical Blindness for which she won her third Emmy.

She was recently seen in The Notebook, which was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes, and co-starred James Garner, Ryan Gosling, and Rachel McAdams. In 2004, she won her first Daytime Emmy for her role as Mrs. Evelyn Ritchie in The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie. To name a few, Ms. Rowlands has been nominated for two Academy Awards; six Emmy nominations, and one Daytime Emmy; eight Golden Globes; three Satellite Awards; and one SAG Award. Some of her notable wins include a Silver Berlin Bear; three Emmy Awards and one Daytime Emmy; two Golden Globes; two National Board of Review Awards; two Satellite Awards; and one Prize San Sebastián.

In 2005, she appeared opposite Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard, and John Hurt in the gothic thriller The Skeleton Key.

Cassavetes films

According to Boston University film scholar Ray Carney, Rowlands sought to suppress an early version of Cassavetes' first film, Shadows, that Carney says he rediscovered after decades of searching.^[8]

According to Carney, Rowlands also became involved in the screenings of Husbands and Love Streams. The UCLA Film and Television Archive mounted a restoration of Husbands, as it was pruned down (without Cassavetes's consent, and in violation of his contract) by Columbia Pictures several months after its release, in an attempt to restore as much of the removed content as possible. However, at Rowlands' request, UCLA created an alternative print with almost ten minutes of content edited out, as Rowlands felt that these scenes were in poor taste. The alternative print is the only one that has been made available for rental.^[9]

Filmography

• The High Cost of Loving (1958)
• Shadows (1959)
• Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
• The Spiral Road (1962)
• A Child Is Waiting (1963)
• Tony Rome (1967)
• Faces (1968)
• Machine Gun McCain (1968)
• Minnie and Moskowitz (1971)
• A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
• Two-Minute Warning (1976)
• Opening Night (1977)
• The Brink's Job (1978)
• Gloria (1980)
• Tempest (1982)
• Love Streams (1984)
• Light of Day (1987)
• Another Woman (1988)
• Hollywood Mavericks (1990)
• Once Around (1991)
• Night on Earth (1991)
• Ted and Venus (1991)
• Silent Cries (1993)
• Anything for John (1993)
• Something to Talk About (1995)
• The Neon Bible (1995)
• Unhook the Stars (1996)
• She's So Lovely (1997)
• Paulie (1998)
• Hope Floats (1998)
• The Mighty (1998)
• Playing by Heart (1998)
• The Weekend (1999)
• Light Keeps Me Company (2000)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003)
• Hysterical Blindness (2003)
• Taking Lives (2004)
• The Notebook (2004)
• The Skeleton Key (2005)
• Paris, je t'aime (2006)
• Broken English (2007)
• Persepolis (2007)
• What If God Were the Sun? (2007)

References

External links

• Interview with Gena Rowlands

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