Actor Kevin Bacon has worked steadily as an actor and appeared in so many different films that he actually spawned a trivia game called “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” The purpose is to see if you can link Bacon to any other actor in less than six other movies.
Bacon started his career at the Circle in the Square Theater School in New York City, which then led to small roles in the immensely popular “Animal House” and in the Neil Simon film “Only When I Laugh.” He then appeared in the sleeper smash “Friday the 13th” where he was one of the early victims in the immensely popular series of films. Fame would come when he joined such other young actors as Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Ellen Barkin, Mickey Rourke, Tim Daly and Paul Reiser in the bittersweet comedy “Diner” from Barry Levinson. Two years later he would have his first starring role in the smash hit “Footloose” about a small town where dancing is forbidden. Bacon plays the rebellious outsider who tries to change this policy.
Despite his vast array of films Bacon’s only award recognition has come from his work in television. In 2009 he won the Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy for his performance in the TV movie “Taking Chance.” This film depicts the experience of a marine who volunteers to escort the body of a young soldier killed in battle back to his hometown. He has somehow never received an Oscar nomination yet.
Bacon has been married to fellow actor Kyra Sedgwick since 1988 and they have two children. To celebrate Bacon’s birthday, tour our photo gallery featuring the titles already mentioned plus “JFK,” “The River Wild,” “Murder in the First,” “Mystic River,” “Apollo 13” and more. Tour our photo gallery for which we rank his 15 greatest movie performances from worst to best.
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15. NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: John Landis. Writers: Harold Ramis, Doug Kenny, Chris Miller. Starring John Belushi, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen.
With its raunchy college humor, “Animal House” caused a sensation in 1978 and made food fights and toga parties a standard part of the college fraternity experience. The film follows the antics of the worst frat house on campus and their clashes with the college establishment who wish to shut them down. Bacon had has first prominent film role as a self-absorbed student in a rival fraternity.
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14. FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Sean S. Cunningham. Writer: Victor Miller. Starring Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Mark Nelson.
This was a low budget slasher film probably spawned by the success of “Halloween” two years prior that turned into a huge box office hit and led to countless sequels and spinoffs. Bacon plays one of the camp counselors who unfortunately falls prey to Jason Voorhees (or did he?).
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13. THE WOODSMAN (2004)
Image Credit: Dash/Lee Daniels/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Nicole Kassell. Writers: Nicole Kassell, Steven Fechter. Starring Kyra Sedgewick, Benjamin Bratt, Michael Shannon.
This acclaimed film did well at film festivals earning praise for its director and Bacon. He also received a nomination for Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards. He stars in a complicated role as a convicted child molester who returns to his hometown after years of incarceration.
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12. SHE’S HAVING A BABY (1988)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and Writer: John Hughes. Starring Elizabeth McGovern, Alec Baldwin, Holland Taylor.
John Hughes became an iconic filmmaker dealing with films about the teenage experience such as “The Breakfast Club,” “Sixteen Candles,” “Pretty in Pink,” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” He started receiving a bit of flack that he only made films for the youth market so this was when of his attempts to make films about adults. Bacon stars as a young married man whose wife is pregnant causing him stress and doubts of whether or not he is mature enough to handle this new responsibility.
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11. FLATLINERS (1990)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Joel Schumacher. Writer: Peter Filardi. Starring Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin.
This science fiction film is about five medical students who experiment by putting each other into near death states to find out if there is an afterlife. The experiments start to have negative effects and endanger their lives. The film was fortunate to cast Julia Roberts as the sole female member of the group. A few months prior to this film’s release Roberts had become a national sensation as the star of the huge box office success “Pretty Woman.”
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10. WILD THINGS (1998)
Image Credit: Jon Farmer/Mandalay Ent/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: John McNaughton. Writer: Stephen Peters. Starring Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards.
Things are never what they seem in this tidy thriller about two high school students who accuse a guidance counselor of rape. Bacon plays a police officer investigating the case who also may not be quite who we think he is.
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9. TREMORS (1990)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Ron Underwood. Writers: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Ron Underwood. Starring Fred Ward, Michael Gross, Reba McEntire.
This cult favorite depicts a small town’s battle against giant worm-like creatures that are borrowing under their homes and killing people. Bacon plays one of two handymen who lead the battle against the killer worms.
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8. A FEW GOOD MEN (1992)
Image Credit: Sidney Baldwin/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Rob Reiner. Writer: Aaron Sorkin. Starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore.
Based on a popular Broadway play this film introduced Arron Sorkin to film audiences and made “you can’t handle the truth” a popular catchphrase. This is a courtroom drama where two young marines are placed on trial for murder but they insist they were acting under orders. Tom Cruise plays the lawyer defending the marines. Bacon plays the judge advocate assigned to the case. The movie received four Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson.
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7. JFK (1991)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Director: Oliver Stone. Writers: Oliver Stone, Zachary Sklar. Starring Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, Jack Lemmon.
Although it received eight Oscar nominations including one for Best Picture, this was a highly controversial film that was accused of presenting speculation as fact in regards to possible conspiracies to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Kevin Costner stars as Jim Garrison, a District Attorney in Louisiana who tries to prosecute people he thinks aided Lee Harvey Oswald in the assassination of JFK. Bacon plays a male hustler who provides Costner with information about Clay Shaw, one of the people who Costner believes is involved in the murder.
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6. MYSTIC RIVER (2003)
Image Credit: Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Clint Eastwood. Writer: Brian Helgeland. Starring Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden.
This film from director Clint Eastwood earned eight Oscar nominations (including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Marcia Gay Harden) and won Best Actor for Sean Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Tim Robbins. The film centers on three childhood friends who are confronted by strangers as kids with one of them being raped. The film then details how this incident affects their later lives. Bacon plays one of the three friends who has grown up to be a police officer.
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5. FOOTLOOSE (1984)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Herbert Ross. Writer: Dean Pitchford. Starring Lori Singer, John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest.
Following on the heals of “Flashdance” the year before, this film became a surprise box office hit and was kind of considered the male version of the other film. The dancing sequences were even increased in number due to the other film’s success. Bacon plays a city teenager who moves to a conservative small town where dancing has been forbidden in public. He rebels against the rule. The film’s soundtrack featured a number of songs that became hit singles. Two of them, the title track and “Lets Hear It for the Boy,” were nominated for Oscars as Best Original Song.
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4. THE RIVER WILD (1994)
Image Credit: Melissa Moseley/Universal/Turman-Foster/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Curtis Hanson. Writer: Denis O’Neill. Starring Meryl Streep, David Straithairn, Joseph Mazello.
Shades of “Deliverance” linger around this film also centering on people being menaced while on a white water rafting trip. Meryl Streep stars as a mother who with her husband and son try desperately to escape two vicious criminals also on the river. Bacon plays one of the criminals. He along with Streep received Golden Globe nominations for the film. Streep also received a SAG nomination, but in a rare occurrence for her, she didn’t make it onto the list at the Oscar nominations.
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3. APOLLO 13 (1995)
Image Credit: Universal/REX/Shutterstock Director: Ron Howard. Writer: William Broyles Jr., Al Reinert. Starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Ed Harris.
The oft played quote “something broke on your daddy’s spaceship” probably best sums up the plot of the real fate of Apollo 13, which suffered damage while in flight resulting in doubt whether the ship would be able to make it back to earth. Bacon plays one of the astronauts on board. The film had a strange Oscar experience. It seemed like the front runner going into the awards season but its director Ron Howard was shockingly left off the list of nominees for Best Director. That seemingly weakened the film’s chances and it suffered two surprise losses it was favored for at the ceremony. It lost Best Picture to “Braveheart” and Ed Harris lost Best Supporting Actor to Kevin Spacey for “The Usual Suspects.”
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2. DINER (1982)
Image Credit: MGM/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Director and writer: Barry Levinson. Starring Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke.
Writer/director Barry Levinson’s reminiscence of his life growing up in Baltimore became one of the surprise sleeper hits of 1982 and earned Levinson an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Bacon plays one of five high school friends who are navigating the difficult transition into young adulthood.
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1. MURDER IN THE FIRST (1995)
Image Credit: Tony Friedkin/Canal +/Warner Bros/Kobal/Shutterstock Director: Marc Rocco. Writer: Dan Gordon. Starring Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, William H. Macy.
Bacon earned a SAG Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor and looked like a likely Oscar nominee in the same category but that didn’t happen. He plays a young Alcatraz prisoner who is being framed for murdering other inmates even though he has been in solitary confinement for three years. Christian Slater plays the young lawyer trying to defend him.
