The actress starred in a series of groundbreaking films for her husband, director John Cassavetes.
Her death was confirmed by spokespeople for her son, filmmaker Nick Cassavetes, who directed her in The Notebook.
Earlier this year, he announced that his mother had Alzheimer's disease.
Husband and wife team John Cassavetes and Rowlands operated outside the studio world, portraying both hard-working and less gifted working-class people in films such as A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria and Faces.
Rowlands made ten films with her husband over four decades, including Minnie and Moskowitz in 1971, Opening Night in 1977 and Love Streams in 1984.
She was nominated for an Oscar for two of her films: 1974's A Woman Under the Influence, in which she played a wife and mother who buckles under the burden of domestic harmony, and 1980's Gloria, about a woman who helps a young boy escape from the Mafia.
Gena Rowlands in 1957 (Dick Strobel/AP)
“He had a particularly sympathetic interest in women and their problems in society, how they were treated and how they solved and overcame what they had to solve, so all of his films have interesting women, and you don't need many,” she said in 2015.
Rowlands has won three Primetime Emmy Awards, one Daytime Emmy, and two Golden Globes. In 2015, she received an honorary Academy Award in recognition of her work and legacy in Hollywood.
“You know what's great about being an actress? You don't just live one life,” she said onstage. “You live multiple lives.”
A new generation was introduced to Rowlands in her son's blockbuster The Notebook, in which she played a woman whose memory has been destroyed and who reflects on a centuries-old romance.
Her younger self was played by Rachel McAdams.
She also starred in Nick Cassavetes' Unhook the Stars in 1996.
In her later years, Rowlands made several film and television appearances, including The Skeleton Key and the detective series Monk. Her last film appearance was in 2014, when she played a retiree who befriends her gay dance teacher in Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
Gena Rowlands and actor Beau Bridges hold up their Emmys in 1992 (Douglas C Pizac/AP)
She and Cassavetes met at the American School of Dramatic Arts when their careers were both taking off. They married four months later.
Gena (pronounced Jenna) Rowlands became a seasoned actor through live television dramas and touring roles in The Seven Year Itch and Time for Ginger, as well as off-Broadway.
Her big break came when Josh Logan cast her opposite Edward G Robinson in Paddy Chayefsky's play Middle of the Night. Her role as a young woman in love with her much older boss earned her reviews that hailed her as a new star.
MGM offered her a two-picture-a-year contract. Her first film, a comedy directed by and starring Jose Ferrer called The High Cost of Loving, drew comparisons to one of the great stars of the 1930s, Carole Lombard.
But she asked to be released from her contract because she was expecting a baby, and she often spent long periods of time away from the screen during her career to attend to family matters.
Gena Rowlands waves to the crowd as she arrives at the Festival Palace in Cannes, Tuesday, May 23, 1995 (Laurent Rebours/AP)
In addition to Nick, she and Cassavetes had two daughters, Alexandra and Zoe, who also pursued acting careers.
John Cassavetes died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1989, and Rowlands returned to acting to ease her grief. Between assignments, she sometimes visited film festivals and societies for Cassavetes screenings.
“I want everyone to see his films,” she said at the San Sebastian Festival in 1992. “John was one of a kind, the most totally fearless person I have ever known. He had a very specific view of life and people's individuality.”