In later years, she appeared in a segment of the film “Paris, Je T’Aime” (2006), opposite Ben Gazzara, and starred opposite James Garner in “The Notebook” (2004), a film directed by her son, Nick, about a long marriage that can conquer anything but dementia. Her final screen appearances were in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” (2014), a comic drama about a retiree and her handsome young instructor, and “Unfortunate Circumstances” (2014), a comedy short in which she played a psychotherapist.
In 2015, she received an honorary Oscar.
Ms. Rowlands married Robert Forrest, a retired businessman, in 2012. In addition to her son, he survives her; complete information on survivors was not immediately available.
“We made half our movies in the house,” Ms. Rowlands recalled, explaining her children’s upbringing, in an interview with The St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1997. “And every time the children would come out of the bathroom with a toothbrush, they would fall over a cable. They assumed everyone lived like that.”
In 1992, Ms. Rowlands revealed to The Los Angeles Times that the psychological work she did to prepare for roles had an unusual side effect. At some point, she noted, she began to dream in character.
“The dreams usually have nothing to do with the script, either,” she said. “It’s just between me and her.”
As for regrets about having sacrificed her life to her art, Ms. Rowlands, in the same interview, disagreed strongly with the whole idea. “It’s the people who aren’t artists who sacrifice,” she said. “Artists somehow stumble onto the best life in the world, and I have no complaints.”
Orlando Mayorquín contributed reporting.
Read More: Gena Rowlands, Actress Who Brought Raw Drama to Her Roles, Dies at 94
