The Notebook Star Gena Rowlands Has Alzheimer's Disease, In 'Full Dementia'

Celebrity By TooFab Staff |
Everett Collection

"It's so crazy -- we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us," revealed the film's director, and Rowlands' son, Nick Cassavetes.

Acting legend and star of The Notebook Gena Rowlands has Alzheimer's disease, her son -- and director of The Notebook -- Nick Cassavetes reveals.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly in celebration of the film's 20th anniversary, Cassavetes shared that his 93-year-old mother has been diagnosed with the same disease she battled in the 2004 film, in which she played an older version of Rachel McAdams' Allie.

"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," he shared with the publication. "She's in full dementia. And it's so crazy — we lived it, she acted it, and now it's on us."

Rowlands retired from acting in 2015, making her last on-screen appearance in the 2014 film Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. An acting powerhouse, she earned Academy Award nominations for her work in both A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, which were both directed by her late husband (and Nick's father) John Cassavetes.

She also received an Honorary Academy Award in 2015.

Rowlands' mother, actress Lady Rowlands, also reportedly suffered from Alzheimer's -- something Gena opened up to in an O Magazine interview from 2004.

"This last one— The Notebook, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks — was particularly hard because I play a character who has Alzheimer's. I went through that with my mother, and if Nick hadn't directed the film, I don't think I would have gone for it -- it's just too hard," she said at the time. "It was a tough but wonderful movie."