If you're a great character actor, you've probably sat behind a desk in a Coen Brothers movie

By Randall Colburn | November 13, 2019 | 3:47pm

Aux Features Film

If you're a great character actor, you've probably sat behind a desk in a Coen Brothers movie

Screenshot: Barton Fink

The Coen Brothers have an eye for talent. Frances McDormand, Oscar Isaac, and Hailee Steinfeld scored their breakout roles in the duo’s films, and the filmmakers have made routine collaborators out of the esteemed likes of George Clooney, Scarlett Johannson, Jeff Bridges, Billy Bob Thornton, and Holly Hunter. But the well of talent rounding out the fringes of their reels runs deep—character actors you know without being able to name are all over their filmography, and they’re usually sitting behind desks.

Thankfully, a website now exists to help you identify those very actors, from the prolific likes of Leon Russom (Lebowski’s Malibu police chief) and Edward Herrmann (Intolerable Cruelty’s Rex Rexroth) to late Homicide star Jon Polito and Barry’s Stephen Root, the latter of whom boast multiple appearances in Coen fare. Others, like Steve Buscemi and F. Murray Abraham, are more well-known commodities, while a few of the faces, like Raising Arizona’s Ralph Norton, count their experience with the Coens as their only onscreen role.