Profile Text
Joel Coen (left) and Ethan Coen in 2013, photo by Prphotos.com
Birth Name: *Joel David Coen *Ethan Jesse Coen
Place of Birth: *St. Louis Park, Hennepin, Minnesota, United States (both)
Date of Birth: *November 29, 1954 (Joel) *September 21, 1957 (Ethan)
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, known informally as Coen brothers, are American directors, screenwriters, producers, and editors. They won the Academy Award for Best Director for No Country for Old Men (2007). Together, they have also directed the films Blood Simple , Raising Arizona , Miller’s Crossing , Barton Fink , The Hudsucker Proxy ; Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? ; The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), Intolerable Cruelty , The Ladykillers (2004), a segment of Paris, je t’aime ; a segment of To Each His Own Cinema ; Burn After Reading , A Serious Man , True Grit (2010), Inside Llewyn Davis , Hail, Caesar! , and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs . Though they co-directed, Joel received sole directing credit on Barton Fink , The Hudsucker Proxy , The Man Who Wasn’t There , and Intolerable Cruelty . Joel and Ethan also co-wrote all of their films, though The Hudsucker Proxy and Intolerable Cruelty had other writers as well. The two also both co-wrote the films Crimewave (1985), Unbroken , Bridge of Spies , and Suburbicon , with others; and co-wrote the film Gambit (2012). Joel solo-directed and wrote the film The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021). Ethan solo-directed the films Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don’t! , both of which he co-wrote with his wife Tricia Cooke; he also solo-directed the documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind , co-wrote the film The Naked Man (1998) with another writer, wrote the plays Almost an Evening and A Play Is a Poem , and wrote the short story anthology Gates of Eden . The two have also been billed as Roderick Jaynes, Reginald Jaynes, and Mike Zoss.
Joel and Ethan are the children of Rena/Lena, an art historian at St. Cloud State University, and Edward Coen, a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota. Joel is married to actress Frances McDormand , with whom he has a son who is adopted from Paraguay. Ethan’s wife, Tricia Cooke, is a film editor; the couple has two children.
Joel and Ethan’s paternal grandfather was Victor Coen (the son of Louis Coen and Adele Benkel). Victor was born in London, England. Louis was born in Russia. Adele was born in Warsaw, Poland, the daughter of Louis/Ludwik Lajzer Eleazar Benkel and Sarah Salomea Hantower.
Joel and Ethan’s paternal grandmother was Miriam/Mariam Freedman (the daughter of Abraham Freedman/Belovitsky and Rebecca Fogelson). Miriam was born in Meriden, Connecticut. Abraham was the son of Zalman Hirsh Belovitsky and Rochel Leah Gurevich, who were from Papiškės, Vilnius County, Lithuania.
Joel and Ethan’s maternal grandfather was Joshua Heschel Neumann (the son of Sundel Hirsch Neumann and Dana Esterman). Joshua was born in Liepāja, Latvia, then in the Russian Empire. Sundel was the son of Menahem Neumann and Rebecca Sachs. Dana was the daughter of Yehoshua Heshel Esterman and Leah Melamed.
Joel and Ethan’s maternal grandmother was Tamar/Tomor Mohl (the daughter of Benjamin Mohl and Haya Gersch). Tamar was born in Russia.
Source: Genealogy of the Coen Brothers (focusing on their father’s side) – https://www.geni.com