Ethan Coen

Ethan Coen, the younger of the two Coen Brothers, is a versatile filmmaker renowned for both suspenseful genre movies and quirky comedies. Working closely with his sibling Joel, he began his feature-film career during the 1980s, alternating between thrilling dramas (Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing) and stranger fare (Raising Arizona, Barton Fink), with the brothers' tendencies often leaning towards the latter category. By the late '90s, the Coen name was synonymous with unconventional cinema, thanks in large part to their offbeat characters (Fargo's Marge Gunderson, the Dude from The Big Lebowski) and amusing dialogue ("That rug really tied the room together"). While the brothers have had some critical duds (most notably The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading), their filmography is both dynamic and impressive, and includes a remarkable mid-career comeback made possible in part by two engaging literary adaptations: No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy) and True Grit (Charles Portis). Though Ethan wasn't credited as a director until 2004, he has always shared writing, producing, directing, and editing duties with Joel. Unlike his brother, however, Ethan has moonlighted as a short-story writer, poet, and playwright, but these projects don't threaten to eclipse or even slow down the Coens' considerable cinematic output.