‘The Notebook’ actress Gena Rowlands dead after living with Alzheimer’sThe Notebook older actress Gena Rowlands has been laid to rest at age 94 two months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.The two-time Golden Globe winner passed away at her Indian Wells, California home on Wednesday afternoon, TMZ reported.
She was surrounded by family, including her husband of 12 years, Robert Forrest, and eldest daughter, Alexandra Cassavetes, 58.However, the reason behind her death remains unclear.For those unversed, Gena essayed a role with similar struggles with Alzheimer’s back in 2004 for a movie based on the Nicholas Sparks hit novel The Notebook.Her director son, Nick Cassavetes, revealed in June of this year that Gena has been battling Alzheimer’s for five years, and was now ‘in full dementia.'”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 disclosed to Entertainment Weekly.”She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”In 2004, Gena revealed how her own mother’s struggle with the disease impacted her decision to play old Allie.’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,” she told O Magazine at the time.