Biography
Early life
Rowlands was born Virginia Cathryn Rowlands in Madison,
Wisconsin, and was raised in Cambria, Wisconsin. Her father, Edwin
Myrwyn Rowlands, was a banker and a state legislator, and her mother, Mary Allen
(née Neal), was a painter and housewife originally from Arkansas. 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, 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 went from understudy to lead role in the original Broadway production
of The Seven
Year Itch. She opened and starred in Middle of the Night (1956)
opposite film icon Edward G. Robinson.
She made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. She guest
starred in several anthology television series, including Robert Montgomery Presents,
Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, among many
others. In 1961 she starred in the well-received television series 87th Precinct, and in 1964 in Peyton Place.
Teaming with her husband, writer and director John Cassavetes, whom she married in 1954,
Rowlands starred in many productions, including Staccato, 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). She
starred in The Neon Bible.
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 redicovered after decades of searching.
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.
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