Date of Birth:

29 November 1954, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Birth Name:

Joel Daniel Coen

Height:

6' (1.83 m)

Trade Mark:

Frequently casts Steve Buscemi (6 times), spouse Frances McDormand (5 times), Jon Polito (5 times), John Goodman (5 times), John Turturro (4 times), George Clooney (3 times), Michael Badalucco (3 times), Charles Durning (twice), M. Emmet Walsh (twice), Peter Stormare (twice), Richard Jenkins (twice), John Mahoney (twice), Tony Shalhoub (twice), Stephen Root (twice), and Billy Bob Thornton (twice).
References to the films of Stanley Kubrick.
Films often center around or include a botched crime.
The Coens frequently focus on round spinning objects: hat in Miller's Crossing (1990), bowling balls and tumble-weed in The Big Lebowski (1998), hair pomade tins in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), UFO and a car wheel in The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) ...or the fans in Blood Simple. (1984).
Often creates at least one lengthy sequence in most of his films where only music plays as a major event unfolds, i.e Raising Arizona (1987) when Nicolas Cage is being chased after robbing a store. Also sequences in Miller's Crossing (1990), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), and Fargo (1996).
Often has a certain phrase that is repeated throughout the movie or a specific scene.
Typically makes movies set during a specific time period, often in the near-past (Fargo (1996) takes place in 1987, The Big Lebowski (1998) in 1991, and No Country for Old Men (2007) in 1980).
Films usually contain at least one fast-talking character.
Films often include characters or places with the stereotypes of the regions they take place in (the Mid-Western accents and snow-covered landscapes for Fargo (1996), the Southwestern accents and barren deserts of Arizona for Raising Arizona (1987), the Southern accents and dust-bowl landscape for_O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)_, Los Angeles accents and life-style in The Big Lebowski (1998), and the accents and cramped environments of Los Angeles in Barton Fink (1991)).
His movies often have a victim of a crime who is completely unsympathetic (Fargo, Lebowski, Raising Arizona)
Men often explicitly suffer bizarre and bloody deaths or indignities in their films, but women are typically harmed off-screen (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, Barton Fink).
Opening shot with the landscape of the area in which the movie is set and a voiceover (e.g. No Country for Old Men (2007), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)).
Use of phones ringing for long periods of time before a character answers of at all. Tom Reagan in Millers Crossing, The Dude in The Big Lebowski, Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men.
Elaborate, self-conscious homages to past films and filmmaking styles.
Highly exaggerated performances, particularly with eyes and voices.
Often begins movies with a voiceover by a southern character (see: Blood Simple, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men).
Films frequently contain adulterous wives or girlfriends. See: "Blood Simple", "Miller's Crossing", "Barton Fink", "The Man Who Wasn't There", "Intolerable Cruelty", "Burn After Reading", "A Serious Man".
Highly keen soundtracks (always handled by Skip Lievsay), in which mundane sounds are made to seem eerie or used for absurdist effect.

Spouse:

Frances McDormand (1984 - present) 1 child

Source: