Gena Rowlands, whose groundbreaking and fearless performance in “A Woman Under the Influence” inspired a generation and who appeared in many other John Cassavetes films as well as the love story “The Notebook,” died Wednesday at her home in Indian Wells, Calif. She was 94.

Her death was confirmed by her son’s agent’s office. In June, Nick Cassavetes, who directed his mother in The Notebook, announced that the three-time Emmy winner and two-time Oscar nominee had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Rowland’s role as Mabel Longhetti in the 1974 drama A Woman Under the Influence, written for her and directed by her husband John Cassavetes, earned the actress the first of two Academy Award nominations. The other nomination was for Gloria (1980), also directed by her husband. In November 2015, she received an honorary Oscar at the annual Governors Awards in recognition of her illustrious career.

“Working so long? I never thought I would live so long,” she confessed diversity before the event with the roaring, throaty laugh that is immediately familiar from “A Woman Under the Influence,” as well as “Faces,” “Opening Night,” and other dramas directed by Cassavetes.

After her husband’s death in 1989, Rowlands continued to act, particularly for her own children, who became actors and directors. She played roles in her son Nick’s directorial debut, Unhook the Stars (1996), his hit film The Notebook (2004) and his 2012 work Yellow, and her daughter Zoe’s Broken English (2007). She also directed Terence Davies’ coming-of-age drama The Neon Bible (1995), set in 1940s Georgia.

Early in her career, she made the almost effortless transition from innocent Broadway actress to grande dame. In an early interview. In her acceptance speech at the Governors Awards, she said, “Many women don’t want to consider character roles and give up sooner when they can’t play romantic roles anymore. But I just looked at the scripts and kept seeing what I would like to do and never thought about it.”

In a 1975 review of A Woman Under the Influence for the Boston Phoenix, film critic Janet Maslin said, “I know of no other actress who has the physical and emotional elasticity to move through Mabel’s moods as Rowlands does.” She called the actress’s breakdown scene “as bloodcurdlingly authentic as anything she or Cassavetes has ever done.”

Rowland’s last feature films were two more films in 2014: the science fiction comedy “Parts Per Billion” with Frank Langella and an adaptation of the play “Dancing for Six Weeks” with Joshua Jackson.

At Rowlands’ hand and footprint ceremony at the Chinese Theater in December 2014, diversity wrote about the actress: “No one is better known for dissecting the horror of a nervous breakdown.”

Rowlands made her film debut in 1958, opposite Jose Ferrer in the light romantic comedy The Price of Love. She played a sturdy earthy mother in Lonely Are the Brave (1962) opposite Kirk Douglas, but it was when she played the troubled mother of a mentally handicapped son in A Child Is Waiting (1963), directed by Cassavetes, that she began to explore the neurotic core of future roles.

Rowlands collaborated with Cassavetes on ten films, including “Faces” (1968), “Minnie and Moskowitz” (1971), “Opening Night” (1977) and “Love Streams” (1984). Although she also worked with other notable directors – Paul Mazursky (“Tempest”), Paul Schrader (“Light of Day”) and Woody Allen (“Another Woman”) – her work with Cassavetes shaped American independent cinema in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cassavetes reportedly had to pressure Rowlands to perform better because he was a reluctant star. The director did not let up on his demands even when his wife, who played a call girl in Faces, was pregnant with their second child during the filming of the movie.

Like her husband, however, Rowlands also worked in mainstream films to finance his movies. For example, she appeared in “Two Minute Warning” and before that, with Cassavetes and Peter Falk, in the 1968 Italian film “Machine Gun McCain.”

Rowlands also had a successful career in television, receiving eight Emmy Award nominations and winning three: in 1987 for lead actress in ABC’s The Betty Ford Story, in 1992 for lead actress in CBS’ Face of a Stranger, and in 2003 for supporting actress in HBO’s Hysterical Blindness.

Rowlands also won a Daytime Emmy in 2004 for her role in Showtime’s “The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie.” She played the estranged daughter of Bette Davis, one of her screen idols, in the 1979 CBS television movie “Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter.” And in the 1985 NBC television movie “An Early Frost,” Rowlands played a mother whose son learns he has AIDS. The film is considered the first major film drama about the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Virginia Cathryn Rowlands was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Rowlands attended the University of Wisconsin and eventually moved to New York to study acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She married fellow actor John Cassavetes, who had admired her work in a production there, a few months after she met him in 1954.

Rowlands worked in television in the 1950s, making his debut in a 1954 episode of Top Secret and appearing in episodic anthology shows such as Studio One in Hollywood and The United States Steel Hour.

In 1952, Rowlands made her Broadway debut in The Seven Year Itch, and in 1956 she starred opposite Edward G. Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky’s Middle of the Night.

Rowlands wrote the screenplay and starred alongside Ben Gazzara – a longtime collaborator from the Cassavetes era – in “Quartier Latin,” a short film that was included in the 2006 omnibus film “Paris, je t’aime.” In recent years, she has also worked in television, making guest appearances on “Monk” in 2009 (for which she received an Emmy nomination) and “NCIS” in 2010.

Rowlands leaves behind her children Nick, Zoe and Alexandra (Xan), several grandchildren and her second husband Robert Forrest. The two married in 2012.