With a Bacon Number of 3, Kevin Bacon struggles to find a connection with his once famous self
Once a popular actor during the 1980s and ’90s, with a near constant presence on the big screen, Kevin Bacon’s celebrity status has long since dropped to obscurity. With his absence from the limelight, pop culture enthusiasts have been left struggling to incorporate him into the iconic trivia game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
The goal of the game is to connect, in as few links as possible, any actor or actress to Kevin Bacon through movies they’ve been in together or with other actors who’ve shared a screen with the once famous Kevin Bacon…and so on. However many links it takes, that actor is then given a Bacon Number.
Such connections are easy to create for most screen stars because of Kevin Bacon’s near universal presence in film during the ’90s as well as his links with some of Hollywood’s most prolific actors, ranging from acting giant Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men (1992), John Lithgow in Footloose (1984), to silent film great Greta Garbo (albeit through Dennis O’Keefe in Conquest (1937), who was in T-Men (1947) with June Lockhart, who was in The Big Picture with Bacon in 1989).
Bacon initially saw his celebrity status skyrocket with his role as Chip Diller in Animal House (1978). This breakthrough part established his connections within Hollywood, even setting him up with a future link with acting great Robert De Niro through co-star John Belushi, each having shared a screen with Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull (1980) and Neighbors (1981) respectively.
Bacon’s role in the genre-launching college misfit movie also allowed him to establish a link with Al Pacino, who was in The Godfather (1972) with Tony Giorgio, who was in Magnum Force (1977) with Tim Mattheson, who played Eric Stratton in Animal House.
Now a part-time actor and lead singer for his band The Bacon Brothers, his Bacon Number has has sadly slipped to only three, meaning that Bacon has no fewer than three connections with his once famous self. For example, Bacon now plays in his band with keyboardist Charlie Giordano, who had a small role in Cradle Will Rock (1998) with Bill Murray, who was in Wild Things (1998) with Kevin Bacon.
Charlie Giordano (Keyboards) with The Bacon Brothers claims he once met Kevin Bacon in 1992 at a celebrity fundraiser.
Bacon’s wife, television and film star Kyra Sedgwick, holds on firmly to a Bacon Number of one, earned for her role as a prostitute in Murder in the First (1995). Sedgwick admits that were it not for this one film, her closest working relationship with her famous husband of the 1980s and 90s would be through Benjamin Bratt, with whom she shared a role in the 2004 movie The Woodsman and who was also in The River Wild with Bacon in 1994.
Bacon almost saw his Bacon Number improve to two late last year with his voice role in the November 2009 release of Beyond All Boundaries with Brad Pitt, who was in the 1996 movie Sleepers with Bacon. Unfortunately, the film only had a limited release and not a single person saw the movie, forcing Bacon to remain in obscurity.
Despite the close call in 2009, Bacon will see his fortunes change in 2011 as he expects to earn his Bacon Number of two with his part in the next X-Men movie. Bacon landed his role in X-Men: First Class, playing mutant Sebastian Shaw where he will share the screen with Oliver Platt who starred with Bacon in the 1990 movie Flatliners.
Bacon has enjoyed reconnecting with Platt during filming, although he admits being a bit jealous of the character actor’s still strong relationships with some of the most iconic movie stars of the early ’90s.
“It was great hearing Oliver tell these crazy stories about how he partied with Kevin [Bacon], Kiefer [Sutherland] and Julia [Roberts] and still keeps in touch with them,” Bacon said. “That must be awesome.”
This article is adapted from a piece that first appeared on The Daily Blank
JB Goodbody frequently has thoughts in his head that makes him smile. Were they made public at the moment they poofed into existence, without some form of structured outlet such as satire, these thoughts would cause significant distress among his friends, family and coworkers. This is why he is here. 
I managed to link myself to the actress Rachael Weisz in one move.
In most instances, that’ll get you slapped with a restraining order. . .or just slapped.