Few filmmakers can balance as many different tones as the Coen brothers. Blood Simple achieved genre thrills on a low budget and juxtaposed slapstick comedy with harrowing violence. Barton Fink is uncategorizable – some people have even called it a horror movie. The Big Lebowski balances Chandler-esque mystery with stoner comedy and No Country for Old Men has been described as a “crime western noir horror-comedy.”
Part of what makes the Coens’ style so unique is their use of recurring actors. From Frances McDormand to John Goodman, the Coens have some of the greatest performers in the world committed to their company of actors.
10 George Clooney – Fail Safe (100%)
The Coen brothers like to cast revered A-lister and noted philanthropist George Clooney as one of their dumbest characters. The Coens have jokingly referred to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Intolerable Cruelty, and Hail, Caesar! as the “Numbskull Trilogy.”
Clooney’s top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Fail Safe, a televised play adapted from the same novel as Sidney Lumet’s classic Cold War thriller of the same name.
9 Tim Blake Nelson – Deidra & Laney Rob A Train (92%)
Tim Blake Nelson first collaborated with the Coen brothers on O Brother, Where Art Thou? and later played the title character in the opening segment of The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Nelson’s highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Deidra & Laney Rob a Train, a Netflix crime comedy about two teenage sisters who start robbing trains to make ends meet after their mom is put behind bars.
8 Holly Hunter – Broadcast News (98%)
After playing a minor role in the Coens’ debut feature Blood Simple, Holly Hunter was given a lead role alongside Nicolas Cage in the duo’s follow-up work, Raising Arizona. She later made an appearance in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, too.
Hunter’s highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes is Broadcast News, James L. Brooks’ brilliant dramedy in which she plays a news producer faced with a difficult choice.
7 Jeff Bridges – The Last Picture Show (100%)
Jeff Bridges has only worked with the Coens twice, but in both cases, he played the lead role: The Dude in The Big Lebowski and Rooster Cogburn in True Grit. Hailee Steinfeld is technically the lead of True Grit, but Bridges played the John Wayne character in the remake of a John Wayne Western.
With a perfect 100% approval score, Bridges’ top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Peter Bogdanovich’s 1971 masterpiece The Last Picture Show.
6 John Turturro – Quiz Show (96%)
In addition to being a regular collaborator of Spike Lee and Adam Sandler, John Turturro has appeared in a bunch of Coen brothers movies, from unforgettable minor characters like Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski to leading roles like the titular playwright in Barton Fink.
His highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Robert Redford’s Quiz Show, following a lawyer’s probe into a rigged game show.
5 Steve Buscemi – Monsters, Inc. (96%)
Steve Buscemi appeared in every single movie the Coens made in the 90s, from 1990’s Miller’s Crossing, in which he plays Mink Larouie, to 1998’s The Big Lebowski, in which he plays Donny.
His most popular film, according to Rotten Tomatoes, is Monsters, Inc., with a near-perfect score of 96%. Buscemi voiced the villainous Randall, one of Pixar’s most iconic bad guys.
4 Josh Brolin – True Grit (95%)
The Coens cast Josh Brolin as their lead actor in No Country for Old Men and Hail, Caesar! – two movies that couldn’t be more different – and gave him a supporting role in True Grit.
The latter is his highest-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes, with Avengers: Endgame (the highest-grossing movie of all time, in which Brolin reprised his role as the villainous Thanos) just one percentage point behind it.
3 Stephen Root – Superman: Unbound (100%)
The legendary Stephen Root has played a ton of iconic TV roles: Milton in Office Space, Jimmy in NewsRadio, Bill in King of the Hill, Fuches in Barry – the list goes on. Across his storied career, Root has worked with the Coen brothers on O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Ladykillers, No Country for Old Men, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Root’s highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes is the direct-to-DVD comics-based animated movie Superman: Unbound, in which he played Supergirl’s father Zor-El.
2 John Goodman – Argo (96%)
One of the most prolific actors in the world, John Goodman has been regularly working with the Coen brothers since he played an escaped convict in the duo’s sophomore directorial effort, the hilarious slapstick comedy Raising Arizona. Some of Goodman’s most memorable Coens characters include The Big Lebowski’s Walter Sobchak and Barton Fink’s Charlie Meadows.
Goodman’s highest-rated film on Rotten Tomatoes is Ben Affleck’s political thriller Argo, about the CIA’s effort to rescue hostages in Tehran by pretending to scout locations for a movie.
1 Frances McDormand – Nomadland (97%)
No actor has worked with the Coens as many times as Frances McDormand. She married Joel Coen in 1984 and has been working with the brothers since their debut feature Blood Simple. With Oscars, Emmys, and a Tony under her belt, McDormand is one of the few actors to achieve the “Triple Crown of Acting.”
While Blood Simple and Fargo are close behind, with 94% each, McDormand’s top-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes is Chloé Zhao’s true-to-life drama Nomadland, which released earlier this year.
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