Cheyenne Jackson got to be Gena Rowlands’ “last leading man” in this sweet, gay-friendly comedy
passed away this week at the age of 94. Rest in peace.Born in 1930, Rowlands got her start in theater before becoming a television staple in the ’50s and ’60s, appearing in classics like Top Secret and Peyton Place.
She made her film debut in in the 1958 comedy The High Cost Of Loving, but her career reached new heights when she began to work alongside her first husband, director John Cassavetes, shifting the landscape for independent cinema in the process.A Woman Under The Influence, Opening Night, Gloria—these aren’t just some of Rowlands’ finest film performances, they’re some of the finest performances, period.
Commanding, raw, witty, and vulnerable, Rowlands could portray the complexity of humanity on screen unlike any other.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Of course, many millennials will surely remember her from the 2004 romance The Notebook, directed by her son Nick Cassavetes.
As the older version of Rachel McAdams’ Allie who is now living with dementia, Rowlands is the movie’s heart and soul. When Nick Cassavetes revealed his mother was similarly battling Alzheimer’s earlier this summer, it only made her turn in The Notebook that much more poignant—a fitting love letter to a titan of acting.Rowlands would continue acting for the next decade (we highly recommend her segment of the lovely Paris Je’Taime and her committed work in the bonkers horror The Skeleton Key) before retiring in 2014.
