Cool Coen Characters
The Coen brothers are renowned for creating some of the most true to life and powerful characters on the silver screen, and here (in no particular order) is our pick of the very large bunch…
 | Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed) – A Serious Man Very much the Serious Man of the film, Sy is a Machiavellian villain; an obnoxious, pompous manipulator who no-one can resist. Fred Melamed captures the maddening quality of a man who on the surface is everything he should be - kind, generous and loving…it’s just unfortunate that it’s with another mans’ wife. |
 | Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) – O Brother, Where Art Thou? Goofy and toothy are probably the last things we think of in relation to George Clooney, but who can resist this playful portrait of loveably foolish Ulysses Everett McGill? The good ol’ southern accent, his quaint folk lore and his oddly charismatic face create one seriously flawed but fantastic character. |
 | The Dude (Jeff Bridges) – The Big Lebowski A classic Coen character whose absence would leave any countdown bereft. The Dude’s penchant for White Russians, dueling with pornographers, sandals, doing a J and chilling to the sound of 10 pin bowling creates a man with a Zen approach to both life and love. |
 | Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) - Fargo In an unforgettable performance as a heavily pregnant Minnesotan police lieutenant, Frances McDormand is the last word in girl power. Despite being about to pop and having an appetite that is seemingly insatiable, Marge outwits the bad-guy with her tenacious bad-ass attitude that is pure Coen gold. |
 | Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) - The Hudsucker Proxy Who can forget the first time that they saw Norville, joy in his face, hula-hooping as though his life depended on it? An improbable innocent with a fatal flaw caught in our cutthroat world is played with beguiling sweetness by Tim Robbins, an unlikely candidate to woo our hearts with boy-ish charms as he stands at 6’6 in his bare feet. |
 | Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) – No Country for Old Men With his soothing voice, smart bowl cut and sharp cowboy tux you might be forgiven for thinking that Javier will be portraying nothing more harmful that the soft spoken love interest rather than the cold-blooded sociopath who decides the fate of his victims on a flick of the coin. Picking up an Oscar for his chilling role, Javier’s performance is truly inspired. |
 | Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) – The Man Who Wasn’t There One of the strangest and most powerful Coen concoctions, Ed Crane pervades the whole of The Man Who Wasn’t There despite having barely any dialogue. He is American to the backbone, observant, reserved, quietly cynical while not jaded, and desperate. The strongest curse used by this man who is baffled by ordinariness is "Heavens to Betsy!", with Billy Bob’s performance giving Ed Crane an emotional maturity that was necessary to complete this masterpiece. |
 | H.I. McDunnough (Nicolas Cage) - Raising Arizona Another of the Coen’s crazy mixture of bumbling naughty-but-nice, H.I McDunnough is a petty criminal whose moral compass is so askew that his good intentions inevitably go awry. After their attempts to produce any offspring prove fruitless H.I attempts to please his wife by stealing her a baby…need I say more? A gem of a performance by Nicolas Cage makes this man-child totally loveable. |
 | Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) - Burn After Reading Sporting a hair cut as amusing as his character Brad Pitts portrayal of absent minded but hyper-active Chad Fledhiemer provides laugh out loud comedy. While perhaps not Brad’s most subtle performance, his character supplies all the loveable goofiness of the Coen’s anti-heroes and doesn’t fail to please. |