Gena rowlands

Virginia Cathryn Rowlands, better known as Gena Rowlands, was born on June 19, 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. From a good family, her father was a banker and state legislator, and her mother was her painter; her older brother, David, would end up being an actor like her. When Gena was nine years old, her mother was offered a good position in Washington, in the Department of Agriculture, so her whole family moved there. Three years later, it was time to pack again, this time heading to Milwaukee, in her home state of Wisconsin, where her father’s new professional responsibility was in the Pricing Office; “Restless Ass” shortly after they marched to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Between 1947 and 1950 she Gena she studied at the University of Wisconsin, and from there she would finally leave for New York, where she would train as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In this institution she met and fell in love with her husband,John Cassavetes .

Gena’s first acting jobs were with repertory theater companies and at Provincetown House. The beautiful and blonde actress would debut on Broadway with “The Seven Year Itch”, the play by Gabriel Axelrod that gave rise to the Marilyn Monroe film The temptation lives above , with which she began a tour throughout the United States. And she worked opposite Edward G. Robingon in “Middle of the Night.” On television, she would play roles in popular shows like Studio One or General Electric Theater in the 1950s . Or TV series like Laramie ,Alfred Hitchcock Presents and 87th Precinct . Bonanza and The Virginian would arrive later.

Although it is supposed that she appeared fleetingly in Shadows (1959), directed by her husband John Cassavetes, the truth is that her true film debut came with the western The Brave Ones Walk Alone ( David Miller , 1962), where she gave the reply to Kirk Douglas –the actor mentioned this film as his favorite film– and Walter Matthau ; It wasn’t a bad start. And that same year Robert Mulligan directed him in the adventures of Path of the Jungle , again with prestigious actors, Rock Hudson and Burl Yves.

Be that as it may, it is clear that Gena Rowlands became the muse of her husband, John Cassavetes, also an actor and director, a model for independent cinema, who directed her in seven formidable films: Angels Without Paradise (1963), where she was high school with Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland in a plot of a school for the mentally handicapped; Faces (1968), about a decaying marriage; This is how love speaks (1971), where she gave life to a depressive woman; A Woman Under the Influence (1974), where she is a deranged woman, the wife of Peter Falk, and which earned her first Oscar nomination in what is quite possibly the best role of her career, plus her husband was also nominated for directing; Opening Night (1977), a look into the world of theater; Gloria (1980) in which she is a rude woman who protects a child witness to a crime, a role that gave her her second Oscar nomination; Corrientes de amor (1984), where she was the sister of a writer -Cassavetes- consumed by alcohol; They also coincided as actors in the commercials Las Vegas, 1970 (1969) and Panic in the stadium (1976), and in Tempest (1980), an update of the work of William Shakespeare directed byPaul Mazursky .

Married in 1954, they had three film-making children, the best-known of which is also director Nick Cassavetes , who has directed his mother on several occasions, such as in the titles Return to Live (1996), Caught Between Two Men (1997) and El Diario de Noah (2004). Zoe R. Cassavetes certainly claimed the right to direct her mother as her brother, and she did so in Broken English (2007). Even Gena’s mother, Lady Rowlands , would act in several John Casavettes films. On the work in joint cinema of husband and wife, Peter Bogdanovichhe wrote that “if any other director and actress have worked together repeatedly achieving such emotional levels, I do not know them.” Rowlands would point out how meticulous Cassavetes was in her work, she did not habitually improvise.

With all that said, I think it is clear that Gena is a very familiar woman, very much in love with her husband and lover of her three children, who managed to balance work and home, something not so easy having her husband as boss. She has only been married to John Cassavetes, who died of cirrhosis in 1989. However, Rowlands has made films beyond the home sphere, as is well known. Some of her most notable titles are Another Woman ( Woody Allen , 1982), where she listened to a woman’s confidences to her psychiatrist through the thin wall of her apartment; Night on Earth (1991), an ensemble film by Jim Jarmusch . With Frank Sinatra she did a gangster one, Golden Underworld (1968), and with his friend Peter Falk he would be in The Greatest Robbery of the Century ( William Friedkin , 1978), and even in an episode of the Colombo series . Together with Bette Davis he would shoot the TV movie Mother and Daughter (1979).

The truth is that if she was comfortable with a director or an actor, that was a stimulus for Gena Rowlands to repeat with that person. Thus, although they are not memorable films, she made Dear Intruder (1991) and Something to Talk About (1995) for Lasse Hallström . It wasn’t his fault, but The Neon Bible ( Terence Davies , 1995) didn’t measure up to John Kennedy Toole ‘s novel ; The most interesting were A world made to measure ( Peter Chelsom , 1998), where he had a secondary role in the moving story of the friendship of two somewhat freaky kids, one due to illness, and the choir Playing with their hearts ( Willard Carroll, 1998), where he shared shots with the legendary Sean Connery .

The truth is that, already in her eighties, Gena Rowlands does not stop working. In recent years, her work can be highlighted in another choral film, Vidas ajenas (2004), and a southern horror film, La llave del mal (2005). At this time she is finalizing Yellow , a film about the scourge of drugs where she has directed her son Nick.