A classic Hollywood leading man who’s duped into participating in his own kidnapping. An Esther Williams-like bathing beauty who talks like a Brooklyn dock worker. A happy hoofer harboring a secret. A studio fixer stuck in an existential crisis of faith. Not one but two chirpy gossipmongers, both played by Tilda Swinton. Like most Coen brothers movies, the siblings’ latest — the old-timey Tinseltown satire Hail, Caesar! — is chock full of goofs, rubes, dames (of the daffy and determined variety), swells, thugs, mugs, and the occasional pure-of-heart innocent. But all of the singular creations in Joel and Ethan’s new comedy come from a long line of unforgettable heroes and villains that have graced the cinema du Coen since the very beginning.

We’re counting down the 25 best Coen brother characters of all time — from anxious playwrights to morally bankrupt criminals, hysterical wannabe moms to stoic hit men, dumb-as-a-brick he-men to the Dude himself.