Gena Rowlands is living with Alzheimer’s disease.
A four-time Emmy winner and two-time Golden Globe winner, Gena is a screen icon beloved by generations of fans.
She’s perhaps best known by younger audiences for playing older Allie in the romance film The Notebook.
And that’s where this story takes an ironic turn.
James Garner, Sam Shepard, director Nick Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands pose at the premiere of New Lines’ “The Notebook” at the Village Theatre on June 21, 2004 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Gena Rowlands’ Alzheimer’s Diagnosis & How She’s Doing
Gena Rowlands’ son Nick Cassavetes shared the news of his mother’s condition in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly.
Nick, who directed his mother in 2004’s The Notebook, said Rowlands is “in full dementia.”
The diagnosis is rather surreal, given that Gena played a woman with dementia in the beloved film. She played the older version of Rachel McAdams’ Allie, with James Garner and Ryan Gosling starring as the older and younger version of her love interest, Noah.
“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,” Cassavetes said. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
Sadly, as it turns out, the disease runs in the family.
Actress Gena Rowlands attends the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Gena’s Lifelong Battle With Alzheimer’s
Gena Rowlands’ mother, the actress Lady Rowlands, also had Alzheimer’s disease. While promoting “The Notebook” in 2004, Rowlands told O magazine that she channeled her mother while playing Allie.
“This last one — ‘The Notebook,’ based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer’s,” Rowlands told the publication at the time. “I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn’t directed the film, I don’t think I would have gone for it — it’s just too hard. It was a tough but wonderful movie.”
History has a nasty way of repeating itself, it would seem
‘The Notebook’ Star Gena Rowlands Has Alzheimer’s, Just Like Her Character was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.