'Notebook' star Gena Rowlands dies at 94

Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Gena Rowlands , who played a woman navigating Alzheimer's in The Notebook , has died. She was 94.

A representative for director Nick Cassavetes , her son, confirmed the news to the New York Times and CNN , but the cause of death has not yet been announced.

Rowlands had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease five years ago.

Cassavetes, who directed Rowlands' 2004 portrayal of Allie Calhoun in The Notebook , said that the pair had spent a lot of time discussing how to authentically depict the disease.

"She's in full dementia," he had said. "And it's so crazy -- we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us."

Rowlands, who was nominated for two Academy Awards, was known to approach each character she played with a meticulous attention to detail.

"Whatever I say about Gena isn't enough because she's so incredible. There's a nobility, strength and class to her work that nobody else holds a candle to," said Winona Ryder in a 1992 interview . "And she's so beautiful -- you just kind of marvel at the way she moves. The way she lights a cigarette is the best argument I've ever seen for smoking."

The pair appeared together in Night on Earth that year.

In 1974, Rowlands appeared in A Woman Under the Influence, which was directed by her first husband, John Cassavetes .

She told the LA Times that the role was the most difficult she'd ever taken on.

"That was an extremely risky part psychologically because when you play a character they invade your live -- not to the point that they throw a net over your head, but they do get into your psyche."

Rowlands shared that she would sometimes dream in character.

In that role, she depicted how a housewife began losing grip on reality.

"Gena made you feel that this woman's breakdown wasn't inevitable and you saw her searching for signs -- if her husband had said the right thing, if the doctor's tone had been more genuine," said costar Peter Falk . "Gena always gives you both sides of the coin, and it was her struggle for normality and her clinging to the hope that she was wrong about her family that made her passage into terror so devastating."

Rowlands received an Oscar nomination for that role, and also for her acting in the 1980 film Gloria , which was also directed by her husband.

"I never saw two people who loved each other the way they did -- their relationship was so passionate, so full of life, arguments and love," said Seymour Cassel who starred in Faces and Minnie and Moskowitz with Rowlands.

Rowlands and John Cassavetes remained paired until his 1989 death. She and Robert Forrest married in 2012.

She won a Primetime Emmy for the 1987 movie The Betty Ford Story and the 1991 Face of a Stranger , and a Daytime Emmy for the 2003 The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.

In 2015, she received an honorary Oscar.