I loved it because I loved working with Peter Falk, I loved the mix of comedy in it, that was sort of real comedy. Some of the time, when you’re walking out there where the air is thin, you just hope you can walk back again.” -Gena Rowlandsįrom an interview with Matt Zoler Seitz – talking about A Woman Under the Influence. “It left me exhausted and depressed-feeling. Rowlands garnered her first Oscar nomination for her unforgettable performance as Mabel Longhetti in A Woman Under the Influence 1974 co-starring Peter Falk who is in the grips of Mabel’s mental illness. Still, Minnie dreams, and keeps a romantic secret locked in her heart: She’s glad the movies sold her that bill of goods. and, Florence, there just aren’t any Clark Gables, not in the real world. “They make you believe in romance and love. “The movies lead you on,” she tells her friend Florence. Minnie works in a museum and has never forgiven the movies for selling her a bill of goods. In the visual poem about loneliness and the feeling of isolation, Minnie & Moskowitz 1971 stars Rowland as the edgy blonde Minnie who perceptively flickers with co-star Seymour Cassel and displays her captivating sensuality under Cyclopean sunglasses. Rowland manifests a performance ‘aching with wordless solitude’ (Ebert) In Faces 1968, nominated for 3 Oscars, Rowlands plays prostitute Jeannie with director Cassavetes with something like steel and fearlessness behind her eyes asserting a challenge to try and reach her after being crushed by men. She is admirable, which can be said of only a few of us.” There was a directness-not that she wasn’t fun and didn’t smolder-but it came from a place that was both genuine and deep.”– Mia Farrowĭirector Sidney Lumet in an interview with critic James Grissom, said: “The highest compliment I can pay to her-to anyone-is that the talent frightens me, making me aware of the lack of it in so many and the power that accrues to those who have it and use it well. It seemed to be the best way to succeed, but Gena did none of that. It was particularly unique in that time, when many women were trying to be girlish, affecting a superficial, ‘I’m a pretty girl’ attitude. “I’d never seen anyone that beautiful with a certain gravitas. She has the angular hardness which typifies the best of them in that period- one can imagine her, as easily as Crawford, Davis, Stanwyck or Bacall.” Had she been born into the Studio ear of the 1930s or 1940s, one suspects that she would have sured up a career running across the grand roles, from the tough boots molls through to the stoic others and peppery femme fatales. “With her bold bone structure and the curtain of her wheat-gold Jackie O coif, Gena Rowlands is the classic Hollywood icon that got away…. On November 14th, Gena Rowlands was finally given an Honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards ceremony. She was also nominated for eight Golden Globes having won two, and eight Emmys winning three. In 1974 for A Woman Under the Influenceand in 1980 for her gutsy portrait of one tough broad in Gloria 1980. Gena Rowlands was nominated for two Academy Awards for her performances in director/actor husband John Cassavetes’ films. Working since the mid-1950s Rowlands began to give shades of the forceful performances to come in the three episodes of Hitchcock’s series, in particular, The Lonely Hours playing off veteran stage actress Nancy Kelly. In feature films, she was cast as Jerry Bondi in Lonely Are the Brave in 1962, in Cassavetes’ A Child is Waiting in 1963, and in Gordon Douglas’ Tony Rome 1967 starring friend Frank Sinatra and Richard Conte.
In 1975 she starred alongside Peter Falk (One of Cassavete’s inner sanctum of actors along with Ben Gazzara) in Columbo’s season 4 episode Playback. She had a regular stint on the television police procedural series, 87th Precinct playing cop Robert Lansing’s deaf wife. Shows like Robert Montgomery Presents, Ponds Theater Armstrong Circle Theatre Studio One The United States Steel Hour Goodyear Playhouse General Electric Theater, and of course Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. She began showing the attractive pull of her strength in dramatic teleplays for early television programming.
The alchemy of Gena Rowland’s acting style is how she integrates her craft with an indescribable beauty and presence that is reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Age.īefore the emotionally distilled and complex actress emerged as an icon, Gena Rowlands set out with her husband John Cassavetes to create a new naturalistic landscape of independent American movies in the 1970s, that inspired generations of filmmakers. See PART 1 & 2 & 3 Here 💥SPOILERS *The Lonely Hours -Gena Rowlands & Nancy Kelly- s1e23 – aired May 8, 1963
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