Leonard Norman Cohen
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Published
45
Film credits
40
Books
19
Awards
Cohen did not begin his music career until 1967 at age 33, but his song Hallelujah became a global standard. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Companion of the Order of Canada. He died in 2016 at age 82.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Leonard Cohen — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Leonard Cohen by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Leonard Cohen — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
To parents Marsha Klonitsky and Nathan Bernard Cohen, Leonard Cohen was born on 21 September 1934 in Montréal, Québec, Canada, of Polish Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish, and Russian Jewish descent. He attended Roslyn Elementary School and Westmount High School, then studied law at McGill University. He later pursued graduate studies at Columbia University.
Cohen released his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967 when he was 33. Judy Collins first recorded his song Suzanne in 1966, a year before Cohen’s own version. He wrote Hallelujah for his 1984 album Various Positions. In the 1990s, he became a monk in California, living in a Buddhist monastery and taking the Zen name Jikan. He released three final albums in his last four years: Old Ideas 2012, Popular Problems 2014, and You Want It Darker 2016.
Cohen’s engagement to actress Rebecca De Mornay did not lead to marriage. He had two children with ex-girlfriend Suzanne Elrod: son Adam Cohen born 1972 and daughter Lorca Cohen born 1974. In spring 1968, he had a brief relationship with Janis Joplin at the Chelsea Hotel, later referenced in his song Chelsea Hotel. He bought a house on the Greek island of Hydra in 1960 with an inheritance from his grandmother.
Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain referenced Cohen in the song Pennyroyal Tea, showing his influence. Cohen received the Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian honor, in 2002, and the Glenn Gould Prize in 2011. On 21 September 2019, the 85th anniversary of his birth, a set of Canadian postage stamps featuring his image was issued. He is remembered for his deep, poetic lyrics and the enduring song Hallelujah.
Browse the complete filmography of Leonard Cohen — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Leonard Cohen — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
Leonard Cohen's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
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A wall of memorable lines from Leonard Cohen — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Didn’t Want to Write for Pay. I Wanted to Be Paid for What I Write.
The Sole Indiscretion in My Professional Life. 1994 BBC Radio Interview Detailing His Regret on Revealing Janis Joplin’s Name, for Whom He’d Written, “Chelsea Hotel No. 2
I Always Considered Myself a Minor Writer. My Province Is Small, and I Try to Explore It Very, Very Thoroughly.
We Used to Play Music for Fun. Much More Than Now. Now Nobody Picks up a Guitar Unless They’re Paid for It.
My Songs Last About 30 Years That’s About the Lifespan of a Volvo. but They’re Designed to Last as Long as Possible. My Own Critical Examination of the Songs Is Very Severe: If It Can Survive Examination by the Heart, the Mind and the Gut, Then I Think the Song Can Last a Little While.
There Is No Difference Between a Poem and a Song. Some Were Songs First, and Some Were Poems First and Some Were Simultaneous. All of My Writing Has Guitars Behind It, Even the Novels.
I Had Wonderful Love, but I Did Not Give Back Wonderful Love. I Was Unable to Reply to Their Love. Because I Was Obsessed with Some Fictional Sense of Separation, I Couldn’t Touch the Thing That Was Offered Me, and It Was Offered Me Everywhere.
I Like the Life on the Road Because It Is so Regulated and Deliberate. Everything Funnels Down to the Concert. You Know Exactly What to Do During the Day and You Don’t Have to Improvise.
Before the Pesky Little Problem of Losing Everything I Had, I Had the Feeling I Was Treading Water Kind of Between Jobs. a Bit at Loose Ends. When the Money Problem Arose, What Bothered Me Most Was That I Was Spending All My Time with Lawyers, Accountants, Forensic Accountants.. I Thought, If God Wants to Bore Me to Death I Guess I Have to Accept It.
Little-known facts about Leonard Cohen — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Cohen became a monk in California during the 1990s, seeking spirituality.
His Greatest Hits collection was voted the most depressing album ever by a British magazine.
He was engaged to Rebecca De Mornay.
He had two children with ex-girlfriend Suzanne Elrod: son Adam Cohen born 1972 and daughter Lorca Cohen born 1974.
Part of the late 1990s he spent living in a Buddhist monastery in California.
His Zen name is Jikan, which means Silent One.
He is in the same branch of Buddhism as Peter Matthiessen, Michael O’Keefe, Gary Snyder, Peter Coyote, and others.
Marianne Ihlen, for whom So Long, Marianne was written, died on July 29, 2016, in Oslo.
He was of Polish Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish, and Russian Jewish descent.
Daughter Lorca Cohen mothered a daughter, Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen b. 2 February 2011 in Los Angeles, with singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright.
Son Adam Cohen released a self-titled debut album in 1998.
He was a student of Zen Master Sasaki Roshi.
American folk singer Judy Collins is generally credited with popularizing Cohen’s work, as she was the first artist to record his songs Suzanne and Dress Rehearsal Rag for her album In My Life 1966.
He was 32 years old when he released his first album.
His song Suzanne was inspired by the platonic relationship he enjoyed with friend Suzanne Verdal, then-girlfriend of Canadian sculptor Armand Vaillancourt. The song was first recorded by Judy Collins in 1966 and later released by Cohen in 1967 as a single from his album Songs of Leonard Cohen.
He was awarded the OC Officer of the Order of Canada on 19 April 1991, the CC Companion of the Order of Canada on 10 October 2002, and the GOQ Grand-Officer of the National Order of Quebec on an unknown date.
Pictured on a set of nine Canadian commemorative postage stamps, using three designs, issued 21 September 2019, the 85th anniversary of his birth.
In the spring of 1968, Cohen had a brief relationship with musician Janis Joplin while staying at the Chelsea Hotel, and the song of the same name references this relationship.
He is referenced in the work of several music artists, including Nirvana’s song Pennyroyal Tea, Mercury Rev’s A Drop in Time, Enrique Bunbury’s Los Restos Del Naufragio, and Marillion’s Montreal.
He was a poet and an acclaimed singer-songwriter.
Cohen’s most famous song, Hallelujah, was first released on his studio album Various Positions in 1984.
The mother of Cohen’s children Adam and Lorca, Suzanne Elrod, was not the Suzanne that Cohen’s famous song was about; the song was about Suzanne Verdal, a lady Cohen was never romantic with.
Cohen pursued a career as a poet and novelist during the 1950s and early 1960s, and did not begin a music career until 1967 at age 33.
In September 1960, Cohen bought a house on the Greek island of Hydra with $1,500 that he had inherited from his grandmother.
Cohen is mentioned in the Nirvana song Pennyroyal Tea from the band’s 1993 release, In Utero. Kurt Cobain wrote: Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld/So I can sigh eternally.
His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships.
A posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance, was released in November 2019, his fifteenth and final studio album.
Cohen was one of the inspirations for Matt Bissonnette and Steven Clark’s film Looking for Leonard 2002.
He released three albums in the final four years of his life: Old Ideas 2012, Popular Problems 2014, and You Want It Darker 2016, the last of which was released three weeks before his death.
The Leonard Cohen song So Long, Marianne is the title of the season 4, episode 9 episode of This is Us. The song is played and its meaning is discussed as an important plot point.
He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
He was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
In 2011, he received one of the Prince of Asturias Awards for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.
At one point, Leonard Cohen’s biggest popularity was in France. The President of France was known to take his books and records on vacation, and if a French woman owned only one record album, it was bound to be Leonard Cohen.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Leonard Cohen.
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