The Coen Brothers
Joel 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, Barton Fink and Burn After Reading. 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.
Max (Joel) Coen and Ethan Coen grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Their parents, Edward and Rena Coen, both Jewish, were professors, their father an economist at the University of Minnesota and their mother an art historian at St. Cloud State University.
When they were children, Joel saved money from mowing lawns to buy a Vivitar Super 8 camera. Together, the brothers remade movies they saw on television with a neighborhood kid, Mark Zimering ("Zeimers"), as the star. Their first attempt was a romp titled, Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go. Cornel Wilde's The Naked Prey (1966) became their Zeimers in Zambia, which also featured Ethan as a native with a spear.
The brothers graduated from St. Louis Park High School in 1973 and 1976. They both also graduated from Simon's Rock College of Bard (now Bard College at Simon's Rock) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Joel then spent four years in the undergraduate film program at New York University. Ethan went on to Princeton University and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1979.
Joel and Ethan have had a successful career working together and earning awards for numerous films spanning nearly three decades. The genre of their films tends toward noir and horror.
Joel has been married to actress Frances McDormand since 1984. They have adopted a son from Paraguay named Pedro McDormand Coen (Frances and all her siblings are adopted themselves). McDormand has starred in six of the Coen Brothers' films, including a minor appearance in Miller's Crossing, a supporting role in Raising Arizona, lead roles in Blood Simple and The Man Who Wasn't There, her Academy Award winning role in Fargo, and her latest starring role in Burn After Reading.
Ethan is married to film editor Tricia Cooke.
Please pray for Joel and Ethan -- that the Lord will deepen their relationship with the God of their fathers through His Son, Jesus Christ.
--Heidi