Scion of maverick independent filmmaker and actor John Cassavetes and actor Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes decided to take acting seriously after injuring himself while on a sports scholarship at Syracuse University. He had previously played a youth in his father's acclaimed "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974) but made his first film as an adult in a small part in Peter Bogdanovich's well-received "Mask" (1985).

Supporting work in a string of forgettable movies followed, among them the fast-paced actioner "Under the Gun" and the amusing if not entirely successful adventure saga "Blind Fury" (both 1989). He joined several other Hollywood offspring in the action adventure "Young Commandos" (1991) and then starred in three erotic thrillers, "Sins of Desire", "Body of Influence" and "Sins of the Night", all made in 1993, which all quickly disappeared.

Cassavetes was cast in the role of award-winning playwright and screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994), director Alan Rudolph's take on the artists and wits that made up the celebrated Algonquin Round Table of the 1920s.

In 1996, Cassavetes stepped behind the camera to helm the much-admired "Unhook the Stars", a drama about the growing relationship between two disparate women played by his mother and Marissa Tomei. His sophomore effort, "She's So Lovely" (1997), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. From an unproduced script by his father, the film focuses on a woman caught between her presnt happily-married state and her past, represented by her first husband. Co-starring real-life marrieds Robin Wright and Sean Penn and featuring John Travolta, the drama earned the Best Actor Prize for Penn at Cannes.

Cassavetes' third diretorial outing, "John Q" (2002) starred Denzel Washington as a father pushed to extreme measures when the health care system fails his ailing son. It was a well-assembled thriller with an intriguing social message at its core, but did not spark major critical or commercial fires. His next film, however, proved to be his best--and most uncharacteristic--work to date: the involving and effectively sentimental "The Notebook" (2004), based on the bestselling Nicholas Sparks novel about the star-crossed summer romance--and its long-reaching repurcussions--between a spunky Southern debutante (Rachel McAdams in her breakout performance) and a poor but charming small town man (Ryan Gosling). Working with screenwriter Jeremy Leven, Cassavantes smartly restructured the threadbare novel into a sophisticated two-plot storyline with a hint of mystery, one focusing on the young lovers in the 1940s, and another featuring the elderly version of the leading lady (well played by Cassavetes' mother, Gena Rowlands) and the man who stuck by her side (James Garner). A three-hanky film in the best sense of the experession, "The Notebook" demonstrated a new level of skill for Cassavetes, both cinematically and with his actors.