American actress Gina Rowlands has been nominated for two Oscars and plays memorable, soulful and often tragic roles.
Rowlands died surrounded by her family at her home in Indian Wells, California. Here are 5 of her best movies:
The Brave Are Lonely (1962)
In this low-budget, critically acclaimed western, Rowlands is a loyal friend in love with a noble cowboy who resists the modern world, played by Hollywood titan Kirk Douglas.
Rowlands only appears in a few scenes, but her performance makes an immediate impact.
"I had never seen someone so beautiful and with a certain seriousness. She was especially unique at a time when a lot of women were trying to be girls," said actress Mia Farrow in 2015, quoted in Elle magazine.
“Gina wasn't doing any of that. There was a directness — not that it wasn't funny and smoldering — but it was coming from a place that was both real and deep," says Farrow.
Faces (1968)
Nominated for three Oscars, this domestic drama, directed by independent American director John Cassavetes - Rowlands' husband - follows four people during a drunken night out, where painful tensions emerge in a crumbling marriage.
Rowlands reveals a wide range of expressive means and emotions in the film, which is shot mostly in close-up and appears unscripted.
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
In perhaps her greatest role, Rowlands is at her most subtle and poignant as the loving and vulnerable housewife and mother Mabel, who slowly descends into heartbreaking madness.
She was nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe, and the film remains a classic with devastating emotional power.
"The performance is as striking today as it was in 1974," said a 2015 article on the website of noted American critic Roger Ebert.
“It's the kind of performance that raises the bar for everyone else. It shows the huge gap between skill and genius.”
"Opening Night" (1977)
As an aging actress trying to stage a play with an equally troubled star, Rowlands delivers a lesson in handling the role of an alcoholic with integrity, tragedy and even a little humor.
She is "at her best," the New York Times wrote in 1991 of the film, in which she was again directed by Cassavetes, to whom she had been married for more than 30 years.
"Miss Rowlands, as she has shown in other films directed by her husband, can be incomparably funny while falling apart at the seams," the paper said.
Gloria (1980)
Entertaining as a well-heeled gangster's wife tasked with caring for a young orphan named Phil, Rowlands earned a second Oscar nomination for her role in one of Cassavetes' last films before his death.
The British Film Institute noted on its website "another striking performance", citing Rowlands' typically intense and passionate screen presence.
She "possesses great talent and executes it with gusto in Gloria, whether she's shooting at point blank range or taking Phil to the cemetery ... to say goodbye to his parents," wrote the New York Times upon the film's release. | BGNES
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