What Is Joel Coen's Net Worth?
Joel Coen is an American director, writer and producer who has a net worth of $100 million. That is a combined net worth with his wife of four decades, actress Frances McDormand. Joel Coen, along with his brother Ethan Coen, is part of the filmmaking duo the Coen brothers. He and Ethan graduated from Bard College at Simon's Rock, and Joel would attend New York University's film program while Ethan headed to Princeton. Joel worked as a production assistant until he and his brother wrote their first movie "Blood Simple" in 1984. They followed up that effort with "Crimewave" in 1985, "Raising Arizona" in 1987, and "Miller's Crossing" in 1991. The Coen brothers won their first Academy Award for their film "Fargo" in 1996, taking home Best Original Screenplay. They are also credited with titles including "The Big Lebowski," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," "Intolerable Cruelty," and the Oscar winner "No Country for Old Men." Joel married actress Frances McDormand in 1984, and they adopted their son, Pedro, from Paraguay. They live in New York and Northern California.
Early Life
Joel Coen was born on November 29, 1954, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. He is the son of Rena and Edward Coen. His mother worked as an art historian at St. Cloud State University, while his father was a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota. He grew up with his older sister, Deborah, and his younger brother, Ethan. The family is of Eastern European Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Coen developed an early interest in film and cinema as he grew up watching Italian films and comedies with his brother. In the mid-1960s, while a teenager, Joel saved up his money from mowing lawns in order to buy a Super 8 camera. With his brother, he began remaking movies that they had seen on television. They also created original films and had their friends star in them.
Coen attended St. Louis Park High School and graduated in 1973. He then attended Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Afterward, he spent four years in the undergraduate film program at New York University. In 1979, he briefly enrolled in the graduate film program at the University of Texas at Austin. However, he left the school after nine months.
Career
After finishing at NYU, Coen began working as a production assistant on a number of industrial films and music videos. He also began working as a film editor during this time and worked as a co-editor on Sam Raimi's film "The Evil Dead" in 1981.
Joel then began working with his brother, Ethan, on their own films. In 1984, the brothers wrote and directed "Blood Simple," their first commercial film. The film was set in Texas and starred Frances McDormand, who Coen later married. In 1985, the brothers wrote the film "Crimewave" which was directed by Sam Raimi. The same year, the brothers made a cameo appearance in "Spies Like Us." In 1987, the brothers released the film "Raising Arizona" starring Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter.
In 1990, they created the film "Miller's Crossing" which starred Albert Finney, Gabriel Byrne, and John Turturro. The film is about feuding gangsters during the Prohibition era and is inspired by the novels "Red Harvest" and "The Glass Key." The next year, they released the film "Barton Fink," which was a critical success and won three major awards at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival, including the Palme d'Or. Additionally, it won multiple Oscar nominations. The film marked the brothers' first collaboration with cinematographer Roger Deakins, with whom they would collaborate with many more times over the next 25 years.
The next film Joel and Ethan released came in 1994, "The Hudsucker Proxy." The film was a box office bomb, despite its starring cast of Paul Newman and Jennifer Jason Leigh. In 1996, they experienced greater success with the crime thriller "Fargo." It starred William H. Macy and Frances McDormand and was both a critical and commercial success. It received a BAFTA award and an award at Cannes for direction as well as two Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress.
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The brothers' next film was "The Big Lebowski," which was released in 1998 and starred Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and John Goodman. Though it originally received mixed reviews, it has since become a fan and critical favorite and is considered a classic cult film. It has inspired the annual festival, Lebowski Fest, since 2002.
In 2000, the brothers released "O Brother, Where Art Though?" The film is loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey" and is set in Mississippi, starring George Clooney, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Turturro. In 2003, they directed "Intolerable Cruelty" and also rewrote "Bad Santa." The following year, the Coens made the film "The Ladykillers" starring Tom Hanks. In 2007, the released "No Country for Old Men" starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, and Tommy Lee Jones. The film is based on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name.
In 2008, the brothers released "Burn After Reading" starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. They then directed "A Serious Man" in 2009. In 2010, the brothers released "True Grit," a film based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Charles Portis.
In 2013, they released "Inside Llewyn Davis," which is loosely based on the life of Dave Van Ronk. It won the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The next year, they executive produced "Fargo," a television series inspired by their original film. In 2015, they co-wrote the screenplay "Bridge of Spies," which was directed by Steven Spielberg. The same year, they released "Hail, Caesar!" In 2018, they directed "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs," which was released on Netflix.
In March 2019, Joel directed an adaptation of "Macbeth" called "The Tragedy of Macbeth," which was his first directorial effort without his brother.
Personal Life
In 1979, Coen married a woman and followed her to the University of Texas at Austin, where she was enrolled in a linguistics program, and he enrolled in a film program. However, their marriage ended after only nine months.
In 1984, he married actress Frances McDormand. In 1995, they adopted a son, Pedro McDormand Coen, from Paraguay when the boy was six months old. The family resides in Marin County, California.
