Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are four-time Academy Award winning American filmmakers. For more than twenty years, the pair have written and directed numerous successful films, ranging from screwball comedies (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy) to film noir (Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men), to movies where genres blur together (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Barton Fink). The brothers write, direct and produce their films jointly, although until recently Joel received sole credit for directing and Ethan for producing. They often alternate top billing for their screenplays while sharing film credits for editor under the alias Roderick Jaynes. They are known in the film business as "the two-headed director", as they share such a similar vision of what their films are to be that actors say that they can approach either brother with a question and get the same answer.
He and his wife adopted a baby boy from Paraguay in 1994 and named him Pedro McDormand Coen.
Used to receive sole credit as director for the Coen brothers movies, but has always directed films with his brother Ethan Coen (they also write and produce their films together). This was changed with The Ladykillers , and now they both receive credit for directing and producing.
Works so closely with his brother Ethan Coen that the two of them have been jokingly referred to as "The Two-Headed Director".
Alumnus of Simons Rock College, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, along with brother Ethan Coen. This is a fully-accredited college for students who typically enter at the age of 16 - before graduating high school.
He and brother Ethan Coen have had final cut on all of their films since Blood Simple. , their debut film.
Ranked #88 in Premieres 2003 annual Power 100 List with brother Ethan Coen. They had been ranked #92 in 2002.
Brother-in-law of Tricia Cooke.
Frequently includes kidnapping-plots in his films.
Often has a scene that takes place in dark areas with a sense of dark humor. In The Big Lebowski , The Dude talks to Jeffery Lebowski in a dark room with fire; In O Brother, Where Art Thou? , The Devils henchmen capture Pete with thunder in the background; In Intolerable Cruelty , Miles meets with Myerson in the dark room with only a glare of light showing Myersons face; In Fargo , Shep starts beating up Carl in a dim-lighted room.
When an actor improvises a line on the set, he will almost invariably say something like, "That was great, but could you do it like its written in the script?" Most Coen brothers films are the same (line for line) when released as they are on the page in the final draft of the script.
Resides in New York City with his family.
As his brother, he graduated from Simons Rock Early College in Great Barrington, MA. He later attended New York Universitys undergraduate film program to finally graduate after four years there.
In his childhood, he saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Super-8 camera.
Born to Edward Coen, an economist at the University of Minnesota, and his wife Rena, an art historian at St. Cloud State University.
He (along with his brother Ethan Coen ) is part of the prestigious group of individuals to have won Oscars for writing, directing and producing in the same year, for the film No Country for Old Men . The others are Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King , James L. Brooks for Terms of Endearment , Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather: Part II and Billy Wilder for The Apartment , and Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu for Birdman . James Cameron also won three Oscars for Titanic but they were for directing, producing and editing.
Only three times in Academy Award history have director-collaborators been nominated for Best Directing Oscars: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story , Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men . (Wise/Robbins and the Coens actually won the award).
Directed 6 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Michael Lerner , Frances McDormand , William H. Macy , Javier Bardem , Jeff Bridges , and Hailee Steinfeld. McDormand and Bardem won Oscars for their performances in one of his movies.
The first Coen brothers film where both he and brother Ethan Coen are given directing and producing credits was The Ladykillers . They have shared these duties on all of their films, but Joel has always been listed as director and Ethan as producer.
As of 2009, he is the only person to have ever directed his wife to a Best Actress Oscar (Frances McDormand in Fargo ).
Has a younger sister named Deborah, who is a psychiatrist.
His mother, Rena Neumann Coen, died of kidney disease in 2001.
Roderick Jaynes, who is credited with editing all of his films, does not, in fact, exist. The name is a pseudonym for Joel and his brother Ethan.
When asked what films most influenced him and his brother early on, Joel mentioned Hollywood comedies from the late 50s and early 60s usually critically considered lightweight and inferior, including Boeing, Boeing , A Global Affair , That Touch of Mink and Pillow Talk . He also claimed that The Guns of Navarone is his favorite film.
Has won the Cannes prize for Best Director three times, more than any other filmmaker. He won in 1991 for Barton Fink, 1996 for Fargo and 2001 for The Man Who Wasnt There.
In the late 60s, Coen, along with younger brother Ethan, shot their own Super 8 version of "Advise and Consent.".
The Coen Brothers are noted for their unusual writing process of not only eschewing outlines, but of not even concerning themselves what their story is about or who their characters are before beginning to write their screenplays. They will simply begin writing any scene they think up that they find to be interesting. Then, if they think of an interesting idea for a following scene, they will write that one, and then another, and so on and so forth until they have a first draft, discovering what the story is along the way. Then, they will heavily revise what they have until they feel they have a shootable screenplay. They have noted that because of this, they will often get writers block around the mid-point of any given screenplay, and will begin another screenplay in the meantime in order to remain productive. For example, the entirety of Barton Fink was written while they were battling writers block with Millers Crossing , and the first 40 pages of The Big Lebowski were written while they were stuck with Barton Fink .
As of 2014, he and Ethan Coen wrote four films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Fargo , No Country for Old Men , A Serious Man and True Grit . Of those, only No Country for Old Men is a winner in the category.
Both he and his brother Ethan are huge fans of Stanley Kubrick.
And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that,spot you were at before.
