Name: Joel Coen
Date of Birth: 29 November 1954 Adopted a baby named Pedro. 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 (2004), 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 Simon's 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. (1984), their debut film. Ranked #88 in Premiere's 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 (1998), The Dude talks to Jeffery Lebowski in a dark room with fire; In O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), The Devil's henchmen capture Pete with thunder in the background; In Intolerable Cruelty (2003), Miles meets with Myerson in the dark room with only a glare of light showing Myerson's face; In Fargo (1996), 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 it's 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 Simon's Rock Early College in Great Barrington, MA. He later attended New York University's 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. As of 2008 joined (along with his brother Ethan Coen) 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 (2007)'. The others are Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), 'James L Brooks' for Terms of Endearment (1983), Francis Ford Coppola for The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Billy Wilder for _Apartment, The (1960). James Cameron also won three Oscars for Titanic (1997) 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 (1961), Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007). (Wise/Robbins and the Coens actually won the award). Directed 4 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Michael Lerner, Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, and Javier Bardem. 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 (2004). 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 (1996)). 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. Read more Joel Coen movies (director)User Comments |
