Rowlands appeared within Broadway in the late 1950s, and manufactured her film debut in The High Cost of Loving in 1958. She starred inside many anthology television series, including Robert Montgomery Presents, Kraft Television Theatre and Studio One, among many others. Around 1961 she starred in the well-received television series 87th Precinct, and inside 1964 in Peyton Place.

Teaming by having her hubby, writer & director John Cassavetes, Rowlands starred in several productions, including Staccato, A Child Is Waiting, Faces, Gloria (nomination for Academy Award for Best Actress), Love Streams, Minnie and Moskowitz, ''She's So Lovely, Two Minute Warning and A Woman Under the Influence (Academy Award nomination). She starred in The Neon Bible. Within 1985, Rowlands played the mother in the critically acclaimed mass produced-for-TV moving picture An Early Frost. Inside recent years she has appeared inside Paulie'' and in Mira Nair's HBO movie, Hysterical Blindness.

She was last seen in The Notebook, which was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes and co-starred James Garner, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams; in 2005, she appeared opposite Kate Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard and John Hurt in the gothic thriller "The Skeleton Key".