Coen Brothers Regulars
by galenhoward82 | created - 02 Jul 2017 | updated - 02 Jul 2017 | PublicOver the years, the Coen Brothers have cultivated a distinct stable of actors that they continue to use from film to film. Which of them have played the most memorable collection of characters in their films?
Note: This list focuses only on the films they have directed. The Fargo TV series and the handful of films they have only written are excluded.
Discuss here.
1. George Clooney
Actor | Michael Clayton
George Timothy Clooney was born on May 6, 1961, in Lexington, Kentucky, to Nina Bruce (née Warren), a former beauty pageant queen, and Nick Clooney, a former anchorman and television host (who was also the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney). He has Irish, English, and German ancestry. Clooney ...
O Brother, Where Art Thou; Intolerable Cruelty; Burn After Reading; Hail Caesar!
2. Steve Buscemi
Actor | Fargo
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to...
Millers Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; Fargo; The Big Lebowski;
3. John Turturro
Actor | Barton Fink
Highly talented, lightly built American actor who always looks unsettled and jumpy has become a favourite of cult/arthouse film aficionados with his compelling performances in a broad range of cinematic vehicles.
Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian-American parents, Katherine (...
Millers Crossing; Barton Fink; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou
4. John Goodman
Actor | 10 Cloverfield Lane
John Stephen Goodman is a U.S. film, television, and stage actor. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Virginia Roos (Loosmore), a waitress and saleswoman, and Leslie Francis Goodman, a postal worker who died when John was a small child. He is of English, Welsh, and German ancestry. John is best ...
Raising Arizona; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy (voiceover cameo); The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou; Inside Llewyn Davis
5. Frances McDormand
Actress | Fargo
Frances Louise McDormand was born on June 23, 1957 in Gibson City, Illinois. She was adopted by Canadian-born parents, Noreen Eloise (Nickleson), a nurse from Ontario, and The Rev. Vernon Weir McDormand, a Disciples of Christ minister from Nova Scotia, who raised her in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. ...
Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; Millers Crossing; Fargo; Burn After Reading; Hail Caesar!
6. Jon Polito
Actor | The Crow
A veteran of nearly 100 films, Jon Polito is most recognized for his work with The Coen brothers, as well as his many television appearances as a series regular and guest star. Notable motion picture roles include: Millers Crossing, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Crow, Blankman, and The...
Millers Crossing; Barton Fink; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; The Man Who Wasn't There
7. Billy Bob Thornton
Actor | Sling Blade
Billy Bob Thornton was born on August 4, 1955 in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to Virginia Roberta (Faulkner), a psychic, and William Raymond (Billy Ray) Thornton, an educator, high school history teacher, and basketball coach (now deceased). He is the older brother of James Donald (Jimmy Don) (born in ...
The Man Who Wasn't There; Intolerable Cruelty
8. J.K. Simmons
Actor | Whiplash
J.K. Simmons is an American actor.
He was born Jonathan Kimble Simmons in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, to Patricia (Kimble), an administrator, and Donald William Simmons, a music teacher. He attended the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH; University of Montana, Missoula, MT (BA in Music).
He had ...
The Ladykillers; Burn After Reading; True Grit (voice cameo)
9. Richard Jenkins
Actor | The Shape of Water
Richard Jenkins was born on May 4, 1947 in DeKalb, Illinois, USA. He is an actor, known for The Shape of Water (2017), The Visitor (2007) and Step Brothers (2008). He has been married to Sharon R. Friedrick since August 23, 1969. They have two children.
The Man Who Wasn't There; Intolerable Cruelty; Burn After Reading
10. Jeff Bridges
Actor | The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...
The Big Lebowski; True Grit
11. Josh Brolin
Actor | Avengers: Endgame
Rugged features and a natural charm have worked for Josh Brolin, the son of actor James Brolin. He has played roles as a policeman, a hunter, and the President of the United States.
Brolin was born February 12, 1968 in Santa Monica, California, to Jane Cameron (Agee), a Texas-born wildlife activist,...
No Country for Old Men; True Grit; Hail Caesar
12. Tilda Swinton
Actress | We Need to Talk About Kevin
The iconoclastic gifts of the visually striking and fiercely talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by a more international audience of late.
She was born Katherine Mathilda Swinton on November 5, 1960, in London, England. Her mother, Judith Balfour, Lady Swinton (née Killen), was ...
Burn After Reading; Hail Caesar!
13. Michael Badalucco
Actor | Léon
Michael Badalucco, a Brooklyn native, got his start in the entertainment industry at a very young age, going to work with his father Giuseppe, a Sicilian-born immigrant, who worked as a carpenter on movie sets. In 1963, during the filming of Fail Safe starring Henry Fonda, a photo of a young boy ...
Millers Crossing; O Brother, Where Art Thou; The Man Who Wasn't There
14. Stephen Root
Actor | Office Space
Stephen Root, one of today's most prolific character actors, is currently starring in the HBO hit series Barry. The show has been nominated for multiple Emmy's and Golden Globes, earning a total of 32 nominations in its first season. Season two airs March 31st on HBO. In 2018, Stephen played a ...
The Ladykillers; O Brother, Where Art Thou; No Country for Old Men
15. M. Emmet Walsh
Actor | Blood Simple
Wonderfully talented, heavyset character actor (from New York, but regularly playing Southerners) M. Emmet Walsh has made a solid career of playing corrupt cops, deadly crooks, and zany comedic roles since the early 1970s.
Michael Emmet Walsh was born in Ogdensburg, to Agnes Katharine (Sullivan) and...
Blood Simple; Raising Arizona
16. Tony Shalhoub
Actor | Monk
Anthony Marcus Shalhoub was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, Joseph Shalhoub, who owned a grocery chain, emigrated from Lebanon to the United States as an orphan at age ten, later marrying Shalhoub's mother, Helen (Seroogy), who herself was born in Wisconsin, to Lebanese parents...
Barton Fink; The Man Who Wasn't There
17. Holly Hunter
Actress | The Piano
Holly Hunter was born in Conyers, Georgia, to Opal Marguerite (Catledge), a homemaker, and Charles Edwin Hunter, a part-time sporting goods company representative and farmer with a 250 acre farm. She is the youngest of seven children. Her parents encouraged her talent at an early age, and her first...
Blood Simple (voice cameo); Raising Arizona; O Brother, Where Art Thou
18. Peter Stormare
Actor | Fargo
Peter Stormare was born in Arbrå, Gävleborgs län, Sweden, to Gunhild (Holm) and Karl Ingvar Storm. He began his acting career at the Royal National Theatre of Sweden, performing for eleven years. In 1990 he became the Associate Artistic Director at the Tokyo Globe Theatre and directed productions ...
Fargo; The Big Lebowski;
19. Scarlett Johansson
Actress | Her
Scarlett Johansson was born in New York City. Her mother, Melanie Sloan, is from a Jewish family from the Bronx, and her father, Karsten Johansson, is a Danish-born architect, from Copenhagen. She has a sister, Vanessa Johansson, who is also an actress, a brother, Adrian, a twin brother, Hunter ...
The Man Who Wasn't There; Hail Caesar!
20. Fred Melamed
Actor | A Serious Man
Highly gifted, heavy-set character actor Fred Melamed was born in New York City, the son of Syma (Krichefsky), an actress, and Louis Melamed. His father was a television producer, having contributed to such watershed comedies as Car 54, Where Are You, and Sergeant Bilko. He received his theatrical ...
A Serious Man; Hail Caesar!
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