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Kevin Bacon.

The trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is based on a variation of the concept of the small world phenomenon and states that any actor can be linked, through their film roles, to actor Kevin Bacon. The game requires a group of players to try to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. The game was played across various college campuses as early as the early 1990s. Its name is a pun on the stage play Six Degrees of Separation. In 2006, Kevin Bacon himself started a Charity called "Six Degrees." to raise money for unpriviledged children. Image File history File links Merge-arrows. ... The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation (see Six degrees of separation) they have from actor Kevin Bacon, as defined by the game known as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (697x782, 1028 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kevin Bacon User:CyberGhostface ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (697x782, 1028 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Kevin Bacon User:CyberGhostface ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... For other uses, see Trivia (disambiguation). ... Tug of war is an easily organized, impromptu game that requires little equipment. ... The small world phenomenon (also known as the small world effect) is the hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. ... For other uses, see Actor (disambiguation). ... “Moving picture” redirects here. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... In sociology, a group is usually defined as a collection of humans or animals, who share certain characteristics, interact with one another, accept expectations and obligations as members of the group, and share a common identity. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... A stage play is a dramatic work intended for performance before a live audience, or a performance of such a work. ... Six Degrees of Separation is a 1993 film based on the John Guare play, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. ...

History

Kevin Bacon himself in a 1994 Premiere interview for the film The River Wild, while talking about his fame and career, comments that he's worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them. Premiere is an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias, beginning publication in 1987. ... The River Wild is a 1994 American thriller film directed by Curtis Hanson and starring Meryl Streep, Kevin Bacon, David Strathairn, John C. Reilly, and Joseph Mazzello. ... ...

The game first surfaced around then. On April 7, 1994, a newsgroup post headed "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" [1] appeared, which started a lengthy thread. Around 1998, two men from Rochester,NY, started a bar version of the game as to say any one person can be connected through the actor. A newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users at different locations. ...

By the 00s, the game was familiar enough to be referred to in popular culture. In the episode titled "Bacon and Eggs" of NBC's Will & Grace, Kevin Bacon makes a guest appearance, playing himself. During this episode, he makes a very obvious reference to the game when talking with Will (played by Eric McCormack): Bacon And Eggs is the second episode of season five of the television situation comedy Will & Grace. ... The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... Will & Grace is a popular Emmy Award winning and Golden Globe nominated American television sitcom that was originally broadcast from 1998 to 2006. ... Eric McCormack (born on April 18, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is an Emmy Award-winning Canadian actor of Scottish and Cherokee Canadian descent. ...

Will: You— you did a movie with Val Kilmer?

Kevin: No, but Val was in Top Gun with Tom Cruise, and Tom was in A Few Good Men with me. Huh, that was a short one.

Bacon also appeared in a commercial for the Visa check card that parodied the game. In the commercial, Bacon wants to write a check to buy a book, but the clerk asks for his ID and he does not have it. He leaves and returns with a group of people, then says to the clerk, "Okay, I was in a movie with an extra, Eunice, whose hairdresser, Wayne, attended Sunday school with Father O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who recently removed the appendix of Kim, who dumped you sophomore year. So you see, we're practically brothers." Top Gun is a 1986 American film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer in association with Paramount Pictures. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ... A Few Good Men, a play by Aaron Sorkin, was acclaimed on Broadway and was subsequently made into a successful film in 1992. ...

Bacon provides the voice-over commentary for the NY Skyride attraction in the Empire State Building in New York city. At several points throughout the commentary Bacon alludes to his connections to Hollywood stars via other actors he has worked with.

The concept

Kevin Bacon.

The concept is simple, but finding the smallest number of links can be difficult. The way you link an actor with Bacon is like so: Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2448 × 3264 pixel, file size: 4. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 450 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (2448 × 3264 pixel, file size: 4. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... For other uses, see Concept (disambiguation). ...

• Pick any film actor in history.
• Link the actor you've chosen to Bacon via the films they've shared with other actors until you end up with Kevin Bacon himself.

Here is an example, using Elvis Presley: Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ...

1. Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
2. Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon

Therefore Elvis Presley has a Bacon number of 2. The game is sometimes played in order to link any two film actors. The name "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" may be retained, however. Change of Habit was a 1969 theatrical film starring Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore. ... Edward Asner (born November 15, 1929 in Kansas City, Kansas) is an American actor best known for his Emmy-winning role as Lou Grant on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and later continued in a spinoff series, Lou Grant. ... JFK is an American film directed by Oliver Stone, first released on December 20, 1991. ... The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation (see Six degrees of separation) they have from actor Kevin Bacon, as defined by the game known as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. ...

The concept was also presented in an episode of the TV show Mad About You, in which a character expressed the opinion that every actor is only three degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon. Mad About You is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992, to May 24, 1999. ...

The center of the Hollywood universe

While at the University of Virginia, Brett Tjaden created the Oracle of Bacon, a computer program that uses information on some 800,000 people from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). The algorithm calculates "how good a center"[2] an individual IMDB personality is, i.e. a weighted average of the degree of separation of all the people that link to that particular person. The site returns an average personality number, i.e. for Clint Eastwood, it returns an average "Clint Eastwood Number". From there the Oracle site posits "The Center of the Hollywood Universe" as being that person with the lowest average personality number. Notably, Kevin Bacon himself is not The Center of the Hollywood Universe, i.e. the most linkable actor. In fact, Bacon does not even make the top 1000 list of average personality numbers.^[1] Since average personality numbers are dynamic (mercurial) and can change with each new film made, the Center can and does shift. "Centers" have included Rod Steiger, Dennis Hopper, and Donald Sutherland. Karen Black has been the highest ranked actress in the list. The University of Virginia (also called U.Va. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... In statistics, given a set of data, X = { x1, x2, ..., xn} and corresponding weights, W = { w1, w2, ..., wn} the weighted mean is calculated as Note that if all the weights are equal, the weighted mean is the same as the arithmetic mean. ... Clint Eastwood (born Clinton Eastwood, Jr. ... Consulting the Oracle by John William Waterhouse, showing eight priestesses in a temple of prophecy An oracle is a person or persons considered to be the source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 – July 9, 2002) was an American Academy Award-winning actor best known for his intense performances in such films as In the Heat of the Night, On the Waterfront and Doctor Zhivago. ... Dennis Lee Hopper (born May 17, 1936) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and film-maker. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Karen Black (born July 1, 1939) is an Academy Award-nominated American actress, screenwriter, singer and songwriter. ...

Undefined Bacon numbers

A few actors have an undefined (or infinite) Bacon number, meaning that they cannot be linked to Bacon in any number of connections at all. According to the Oracle of Kevin Bacon website, approximately 12% of all actors cannot be linked to Bacon using their criteria. [3] The infinity symbol ∞ in several typefaces. ... For other uses, see Number (disambiguation). ...

Variations of the game

The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game sometimes fails to model the real world as it allows both forward and backward linkings. Very frequently, only one kind of linking is allowed between two nodes. An abstract model (or conceptual model) is a theoretical construct that represents something, with a set of variables and a set of logical and quantitative relationships between them. ...

Forward linking

For example, the spreading of any virus is forward in time. If John Doe catches a virus on Monday, Jane Doe, who only had contact with him two days before that could not get the virus because of her previous contact with John. However if she came into contact with him after she may contract the virus. This article is about biological infectious particles. ... The name John Doe is generally used in the United States as a placeholder name for a male party in a legal action or legal discussion whose true identity is unknown. ... For the musician and actor, see John Doe (musician) For the television series, see John Doe (Television series) For the childrens book by L. Frank Baum, see John Dough and the Cherub In English-speaking common-law jurisdiction, the name John Doe is used for a defendant or victim...

For John Doe to transmit the virus to Jane Doe, it may require following steps:

John Doe → Jack (3 days later) → Tom (3 days later) → Jane Doe (3 days later)

Backward linking

Bi-directional linking

Anyone with a Bacon number of 2 could not have a link of both forward and backward steps. However, with many people who died long ago, pure backward linking is simply impossible, if the use of stock footage is ruled out. For example, John F. Kennedy, who died in 1963 could not be performing with anyone after 1975, Bacon's first TV appearance, or 1978, his first film appearance. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Stock footage, also termed archive footage, library pictures and file footage is film or video footage that is reused in a film. ... John Kennedy and JFK redirect here. ... “TV” redirects here. ...

• Shortest Path from JFK to Bacon (A)

1. John F. Kennedy was in Zapruder Film of Kennedy Assassination (1963) with Jean Hill
2. Jean Hill was in Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy (1992) with Gary Oldman
3. Gary Oldman was in Murder in the First (1995) with Kevin Bacon

• 1963 → 1992 → 1995 (forward steps)

• Shortest Path from JFK to Bacon (B)

1. John F. Kennedy was in Zapruder Film of Kennedy Assassination (1963) with Jean Hill
2. Jean Hill was in Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy (1992) with Gary Oldman
3. Gary Oldman was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon

• 1963 → 1992 ← 1991 (bi-directional steps, backward steps impossible)

Frame 150 from the Zapruder Film The Zapruder film is a silent, 8 mm color home movie, shot by a private citizen named Abraham Zapruder, of the presidential motorcade of John F. Kennedy through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. ... Jean Lollis Hill (1931 - November 7, 2000) was a witness to the John F. Kennedy assassination. ... Leonard Gary Oldman (born March 21, 1958) is an English actor, writer and director who initially came to prominence for his portrayal of Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid & Nancy. ... Murder in the First is a 1995 movie, directed by Marc Rocco, about a petty criminal named Henri Young played by Kevin Bacon, who is unjustly sent to Alcatraz. ...

Distant links

Elsa Masriera has a Bacon number of 7, if bi-directional links are allowed. Seven Days of Creation - 1765 book, title page 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. ...

• Shortest Path from Elsa Masriera to Kevin Bacon (A)

1. Elsa Masriera was in Madre sin saberlo (1927) with Mercedes Olivares
2. Mercedes Olivares was in Bajo dos banderas (1926) with Edmundo Fuenzalida
3. Edmundo Fuenzalida was in Los Cascabeles de Arlequin (1926) with Placido Martin
4. Placido Martin was in Suena mi amor (1946) with Chela Bon
5. Chela Bon was in Curse of the Stone Hand (1964) with John Carradine
6. John Carradine was in The Sentinel (1977) with Eli Wallach
7. Eli Wallach was in Mystic River (2003) with Kevin Bacon

• 1927 ← 1926 → 1926 → 1946 → 1964 → 1977 → 2003 (bi-directional)

• Shortest Path from Elsa Masriera to Kevin Bacon (B)

1. Elsa Masriera was in Madre sin saberlo (1927) with Mercedes Olivares
2. Mercedes Olivares was in Bajo dos banderas (1926) with Edmundo Fuenzalida
3. Edmundo Fuenzalida was in Los Cascabeles de Arlequin (1926) with Placido Martin
4. Placido Martin was in El Ultimo galope (1951) with Yoya Martinez
5. Yoya Martinez was in "Marron Glace, el regreso" (1996) with Walter Kliche
6. Walter Kliche was in The Lawless Land (1988) with Xander Berkeley
7. Xander Berkeley was in Apollo 13 (1995) with Kevin Bacon

• 1927 ← 1926 → 1926 → 1951 → 1996 ← 1988 → 1995 (bi-directional)

Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... John Carradine (February 5, 1906 - November 27, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns. ... John Carradine (February 5, 1906 - November 27, 1988) was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns. ... The Sentinel is a 1977 horror film starring Chris Sarandon & Cristina Raines. ... Eli Herschel Wallach (born December 7, 1915) is an American film, TV and stage actor. ... Eli Herschel Wallach (born December 7, 1915) is an American film, TV and stage actor. ... Mystic River is an Academy Award winning American film released in 2003, starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney and Emmy Rossum. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ... Xander Berkeley (born December 16, 1955) is a well-known American actor, who, despite having had few leading roles, has appeared in more than 80 motion pictures. ... Xander Berkeley (born December 16, 1955) is a well-known American actor, who, despite having had few leading roles, has appeared in more than 80 motion pictures. ... Apollo 13 is a 1995 film portrayal of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission. ... Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor who has starred in Footloose, Animal House, Stir of Echoes, Wild Things, JFK, and Apollo 13, among many others. ...

Transcendental Bacon Numbers

Another version uses links which are verifiable by being in the public record, e.g., vehicle and real estate titles, photographs, theater roles printed in Playbill. For example, Kevin drove a Yellow VW Bug in the film Footloose. The owner of that car at the time the film was shot has (Transcendental) Bacon Number T1. The person who buys that car from that owner has Bacon Number T2. Being in a play with Kevin generates Bacon Number T1. Being in a play with someone who was in a play with Kevin generates Bacon number T2. Having your picture in the High School Yearbook in which Kevin's picture appears generates Bacon number T1. And so on. When claiming a Transcendental Bacon Number, the links should always be stated because there is no Internet Movie DataBase or TV Guide movie database which can be used for verification.

Photography book

Inspired by the game, the British photographer Andy Gotts tried to reach Bacon through photographic links instead of film links. A photographer at the Calgary Folk Music Festival Paparazzi at the Tribeca Film Festival A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. ... Andy Gotts is a celebrity photographer from London, England. ...

He wrote to 300 actors asking to take their pictures, and received permission from one, Joss Ackland. Ackland then suggested that Gotts photograph Greta Scacchi, with whom he had appeared in the film White Mischief. Gotts proceeded from there, asking each actor to refer him to one or more friends or colleagues. Eventually, Christian Slater referred him to Bacon. Gotts's photograph of Bacon completed the project, eight years after it began. Gotts published the photos in a book, Degrees (ISBN 0-9546843-6-2), with text by Alan Bates, Pierce Brosnan, and Bacon. [4] Joss Ackland CBE (born Sidney Edmond Jocelyn Ackland on February 29, 1928 in North Kensington, London) is an English actor who has appeared in more than 130 films in his career. ... Greta Scacchi (born February 18, 1960 in Milan, Italy) is an Emmy Award-winning film actress. ... White Mischief is a 1987 film based on the Happy Valley murder case in Kenya in the 1941. ... Christian Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor. ... Alan Bates as butler in Gosford Park (2001) Sir Alan Arthur Bates CBE, (February 17, 1934 – December 27, 2003) was a British actor. ... Pierce Brendan Brosnan, OBE [1] (born May 16, 1953) is an Irish actor and producer best known for portraying James Bond in four films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. ...

See also

• SixDegrees.org, building on the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon to create a charitable social network.
• Bacon numbers for a lot more information on Bacon numbers and how to calculate them.
• Erdős-Bacon numbers for a mathematician's further extension of this game.
• Movie Game, another game relating to actors and films
• Small world phenomenon

SixDegrees. ... The Bacon number of an actor or actress is the number of degrees of separation (see Six degrees of separation) they have from actor Kevin Bacon, as defined by the game known as Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. ... A persons Erdős-Bacon number is the sum of their Erdős number and their Bacon number. ... The Movie Game or simply called Movie game is a quiz game that is popular for all ages and usually involves more than one person. ... The small world phenomenon (also known as the small world effect) is the hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. ...

Notes

External links

• The Oracle of Bacon, with an automated Bacon calculator provided by the University of Virginia
• Band To Band, links any band to any other band using albums, similar to the Kevin Bacon game
• Cinema FreeNet Movie Connector finds links between film stars, and can also use directors and producers. (Note: Only current through 1/31/99, according to its Database Info page.)
• Omnipelagos, finds the shortest (or most obscure) paths between any two terms in the Wikipedia.
• Six degrees tool - Finds the shortest path between any two Wikipedia articles in the main namespace using wiki links. The source is also available.
• The Oracle of Kasparov - shows the shortest path by which a chess player beats Kasparov.
• Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg - Suggests that Bacon connects to many actors because he acts in many different kinds of roles and films.
• The Oracle of Music- a site that connects artists in the musical universe
• [5] - based on "The Oracle of Bacon", using the same infrastructure written by Patrick Reynolds; this application links all past and present major league baseball players. Early Wynn [6] is currently most connected.