Remembering the sublime Gena Rowlands

Acting legend Gena Rowlands has died at age 94. I first fell in love when I saw her opposite Bette Davis in the sublime TV movie “Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter.”

Some of my favorite performances of the three-time Emmy winner and recipient of an honorary Oscar were in “Something To Talk About,” “Another Woman,” and “Face of a Stranger” in addition to her best-known roles in “A Woman Under the Influence,” “Opening Night,” “Gloria,” and “The Notebook.”

She was an LGBT ally who played a lesbian fighting for custody of her children in the groundbreaking “A Question of Love” and the mother of a gay man dying of AIDS in “An Early Frost.”

I was such a fan and a bit in awe when I participated in a roundtable interview and attended the premiere of her final feature film “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” in 2014 which she starred in opposite Cheyenne Jackson. She could not have been more gracious and charming – and beautiful.