The acting legend, 94, played the older version of Rachel McAdams' Allie in The Notebook - a character who was battling dementia on-screen.Emmy and Golden Globe winner Rowlands has had the disease for five years, and is now 'in full dementia,' according to her devastated family.
To keep the spark alive and rekindle their romance in spite of her memory loss, Noah has been reading out of a notebook written by Allie in the beginning stages of her illness, detailing their love story so he can help her remember him. Nick Cassavetes, reflecting on his experience directing his mother in 'The Notebook', shared a bittersweet memory with Entertainment Weekly.
'She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us,' her son Nick Cassavetes announced 'I promise you, on my father's life, this is true: Teardrops came flying out of her eyes when she saw , and she burst into tears. And I was like, okay, well, we got that ... It's the one time I was in trouble on set.'
Pictured: Gena Rowlands playing baseball with her son Nick Cassavetes, who would eventually follow in his father's shoes as a director, at their house in 1964, at Los Angeles, California