Gena Rowlands, who has died at the age of 94, was a highly respected actor, with a fierce, edgy, often emotionally unstable on screen presence. She often played traumatised mothers or mother figures and her characters were often tinged with a brittle abrasiveness.
Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1930, Rowlands began her distinguished acting career in 1956, playing opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s play Middle of the Night on Broadway.
After several television roles, Hollywood quickly came calling, with small roles in The High Cost of Loving (1958) and Lonely Are The Brave (1962).
