Gena Rowlands death: Danny DeVito, Carrie Coon and Amy Sedaris lead tributes to star

‘Gloria’ actor and three-time Emmy winner is remembered as ‘one of the greats’

Gena Rowlands was best known for her Oscar-nominated roles in ‘A Woman Under the Influence’ and ‘Gloria’ (Getty Images)

Danny DeVito, Carrie Coon and Amy Sedaris are among the actors paying tribute to A Woman Under the Influence star Gena Rowlands, who has died aged 94.

Rowlands, a three-time Emmy-winner, is being celebrated for her career-defining portrayals of nuanced, strong and troubled women, such as her Oscar-nominated role in the 1974 film A Women Under the Influence, as well as movies Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), Opening Night (1977), and Gloria (1980).

Her bold portrayal of complex women is being remembered as groundbreaking given that these characters were particularly rare in American cinema of that period.

DeVito was among the Hollywood stars to pay tribute to the late actor, penning a simple message with the words: “Gena, love,” alongside a love-heart emoji and another emoji with an upset expression.

Gone Girl actor Carrie Coon expressed her disappointment at the media coverage that focussed on Rowlands’ role in the 2004 romance film The Notebook, rather than her earlier movies that shaped cinema history.

“We lost Gena Rowlands – one of the greats – but also our dignity, as headlines trumpet: actress from ‘The Notebook,’” wrote Coon.

The Mandalorian actor Amy Sedaris shared a moving message on her Instagram page, alongside images of Rowlands in various movies, including stills from A Women Under the Influence.

“Rest in peace Gena Rowland,” wrote Sedaris. “No one comes close. No one. Very sad. #spiritinthesky.”

Gena Rowlands and her former husband, film director John Cassavetes (Getty Images)

Also paying tribute to the star was This is Spinal Tap actor Michael McKean who called Rowlands simply “irreplaceable”.

One fan remembered Rowlands as “one of the greats” and shared a clip of their favourite movie scene of all time, which features the moment Rowlands’ character, Mabel Longhetti, meets her children off of the bus in A Women Under the Influence.

Mabel is seen looking stressed before the yellow bus pulls up and she starts jumping up and down at the sight of her children. When she greets them, she pounces at the doors opening and embraces her children before they run home together.

“That moment in A Woman Under the Influence when Gena Rowlands picks her kids up at the bus,” wrote the fan. “Probably one of my favourite portrayals of motherhood onscreen. I love all her ‘mom’ scenes so much, I have them saved on my phone.”

Another fan called Rowlands’s death “devastating”.

Rowlands photographed in 1968 (Getty Images)

“Gena Rowlands was an actor of a different calibre. So much of what she did had a profound effect on me and so many others. Her monologue in Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) is forever on my mind. Rest in peace, dear Gena,” said someone else.

Born in 1930 in Madison, Wisconsin, Rowlands studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1953, where she met her husband, the director John Cassavetes, who was also a student there.

They were married within a year and both worked as actors on stage and screen. Cassavetes put Rowlands in more than 10 of his movies when he became a successful director.

Rowlands made her Broadway debut opposite Edward G Robinson in 1956 in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night.

Despite much of Rowlands’ success coming from her husband’s films – including A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria – she maintained a her career on screen after Cassavetes death in 1989, and starred in TV dramas such as Thursday’s Child and The Betty Ford Story.

It was her son, Nick Cassavetes, who directed the Ryan Gosling romance film The Notebook. In it, she played an older version of Rachel McAdams, who has Alzheimer’s and later dies.

Nick revealed earlier this year that while Rowlands had been diagnosed with the same disease. “I got my mom to play older Allie, and we spent a lot of time talking about Alzheimer’s and wanting to be authentic with it, and now, for the last five years, she’s had Alzheimer’s,” he said at the time.

“She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy – we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us,” he said.

Rowlands died on Wednesday (14 August) at home in Indian Wells, California, surrounded by loved ones. Her son Nick confirmed the news.

She is survived by her husband, Robert Forrest, and three children from her marriage to Cassavetes: Nick, Alexandra, and Zoe.