35 Beautiful Photos of Gena Rowlands in the 1950s and ’60s

Born 1930 in Cambria, Wisconsin, American retired actress Gena Rowlands made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch in 1952 and toured in a national production of the play, and made her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958.

Rowlands has spanned her career seven decades in film, stage, and television. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, including A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Gloria (1980), which earned her nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Actress for Opening Night (1977). She is also known for her performances in Woody Allen’s Another Woman (1988), and her son, Nick Cassavetes’s film, The Notebook (2004).

In 2021, Richard Brody of The New Yorker said, “The most important and original movie actor of the past half century-plus is Gena Rowlands.” In November 2015, Rowlands received an Honorary Academy Award in recognition of her unique screen performances.

These beautiful photos captured portraits of young Gena Rowlands in the 1950s and 1960s.