The acting world is mourning a tragic loss.
Gena Rowlands—the actress who played the older version of Rachel McAdams‘ character Allie in the 2004 romance classic The Notebook—died on Aug. 14 at her home in Indian Wells, Calif., her son Nick Cassavetes‘ agent confirmed to Variety. She was 94.
Her cause of death has not been shared.
E! News reached out Gena’s and Nick’s reps for comment but has not heard back.
Two months before Gena’s passing, Nick—who directed The Notebook—shared that his mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 88. At the time, he noted the significance of her performance in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation as someone with the same condition.
“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,” Nick told Entertainment Weekly in an article published June 25. “She’s in full dementia. And it’s so crazy—we lived it, she acted it, and now it’s on us.”
