| Gena Rowlands  AKA Virginia Cathryn Rowlands
Born: 19-Jun-1930
Birthplace: Cambria, WI
Gender: Female
Religion: Anglican/Episcopalian
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: A Woman Under The Influence Gena Rowlands is an American actress, recognized for roles as tough, boozy, or traumatized women, and for her long professional collaboration with her husband, art-house filmmaker John Cassavetes. They were married just two months after they met, and stayed together until his death in 1989.
Her father was vice-president of a local bank, a state assemblyman and later a state senator. Rowlands dropped out of college after a big argument with her parents (the subject remains unclear) and moved to New York, where she supported herself by working part-time at a movie theater. She studied drama at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and wrote dialogue for comic books during dry spells between low-paying acting gigs. She was first understudy in the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch, and took over the lead role late in the play's run. Her first Hollywood hit was opposite Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau in Lonely are the Brave, in 1962.
Rowlands starred in Cassavetes' films such as Faces, A Woman Under The Influence, and Love Streams. She also worked alongside Cassavetes as an actor in Two Minute Warning, and Paul Mazursky's version of The Tempest, with Molly Ringwald.
Sans husband, Rowlands later played Mom to Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox in Light of Day, and mothered one of TV's first AIDS deaths in the drama An Early Frost. She was the accidental eavesdropper in Woody Allen's Another Woman, and was also featured in Night on Earth, The Neon Bible, and The Notebook. Father: Edwin Myrwyn Rowlands (state assemblyman)
Mother: Mary Allen Neal ("Lady", actress, b. 12-Aug-1904, d. 28-May-1999)
Brother: David Rowlands (doctor)
Husband: John Cassavetes (actor, b. 9-Dec-1929, m. 19-Mar-1954, d. 3-Feb-1989)
Son: Nick Cassavetes (actor, b. 21-May-1959)
Son: Frank Cassavetes (physical trainer)
Daughter: Alexandra Cassavetes (b. 1965)
Daughter: Zoe R. Cassavetes (b. 1969)
High School: Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, VA (1947)
University: University of Wisconsin (attended 1947-50, dropped out)
University: American Academy of Dramatic Arts
Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority
TELEVISION
87th Precinct Teddy Carella (1961)
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Parts Per Billion (25-Mar-2014)
What If God Were the Sun? (14-May-2007)
Broken English (2007)
Paris, je t'aime (18-May-2006)
The Skeleton Key (29-Jul-2005) · Violet
The Notebook (20-May-2004) · Allie Calhoun
Taking Lives (16-Mar-2004) · Mrs. Asher
The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie (19-May-2003)
Broadway: The Golden Age (Apr-2003) · Herself
Charms for the Easy Life (18-Aug-2002)
Hysterical Blindness (16-Jan-2002)
Wild Iris (5-Aug-2001)
The Color of Love: Jacey's Story (19-Mar-2000)
Light Keeps Me Company (5-Feb-2000) · Herself
Playing by Heart (30-Dec-1998)
The Mighty (2-Jun-1998) · Gram
Hope Floats (29-May-1998) · Ramona Calvert
Paulie (17-Apr-1998)
She's So Lovely (15-May-1997) · Miss Green
Unhook the Stars (4-Sep-1996) · Mildred
The Neon Bible (23-Aug-1995)
Something to Talk About (4-Aug-1995) · Georgia King
Parallel Lives (14-Aug-1994)
Crazy in Love (10-Aug-1992)
Ted and Venus (20-Dec-1991)
Night on Earth (12-Dec-1991)
Once Around (18-Jan-1991)
Another Woman (18-Nov-1988) · Marion
The Betty Ford Story (2-Mar-1987)
Light of Day (6-Feb-1987)
An Early Frost (11-Nov-1985)
Love Streams (24-Aug-1984)
Tempest (13-Aug-1982)
Gloria (Sep-1980) · Gloria Swenson
Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (13-May-1979)
The Brinks Job (6-Apr-1979) · Mary Pino
Opening Night (22-Dec-1977) · Myrtle Gordon
Two Minute Warning (12-Nov-1976)
A Woman Under the Influence (12-Oct-1974) · Mabel Longhetti
Minnie and Moskowitz (22-Dec-1971) · Minnie
Machine Gun McCain (1-Apr-1969) · Rosemary Scott
Faces (24-Nov-1968)
Tony Rome (10-Nov-1967)
A Child Is Waiting (13-Feb-1963) · Sophie Widdicombe
The Spiral Road (3-Aug-1962)
Lonely Are the Brave (24-May-1962) · Jerry Bondi
The High Cost of Loving (16-May-1958)
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