# Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 10, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853 "2000-08-10T16:09:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Outrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@Outrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Outrider)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/1 "2000-08-10T16:09:15Z")
Is it possible to create a computer program that, given the name of a movie star, would attempt to link them to Kevin Bacon or anyone else in as few “hops” as possible? I assume some sort of movie database would be required. Could IMDB be put to use for this purpose? What kind of algorithm would be required? Something recursive? Is it feasible? Do you want to write it for me? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/2 "2000-08-10T16:22:39Z")
Can be done, and has been done. [http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/) And if you can find anyone with a Bacon number higher than 4, you’re kicking ass. ---
**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/3 "2000-08-10T17:06:26Z")
Robot Arm, that program kicks ass! I can’t believe how hard it is to get more than 4 degrees of seperation from Kevin Bacon. I haven’t gotten higher than 3 yet, and I’ve even tried Mary Pickford, Theda Bara, and Lon Chaney. ---
**Author:** ![Outrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@Outrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Outrider)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/4 "2000-08-10T17:32:27Z")
According to that page, there are 2 people that are exactly 8 degrees away from Kevin. I wonder who they are… ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/5 "2000-08-10T19:22:57Z")
Geez this is rough! I tried Anna Held, the subject of Eve’s book Anna Held and a the Birth of Zeigfeld’s Broadway and she came out with a 3! > [@](#): > > The Oracle says: Anna Held has a Bacon number of 3. > > Anna Held was in Madame la Presidente (1916) with Howard (II) Davies Howard (II) Davies was in Lassie Come Home (1943) with Roddy McDowall Roddy McDowall was in Big Picture, The (1989) with Kevin Bacon. Man! ---
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/6 "2000-08-10T19:36:18Z")
I tried Bucky Dent, a shortstop on the Yankees in the 1970s, who I remember was in a TV-movie. He got a 3! So did Ed Wood! So did Charlie Chaplin! It appears William Devane is a factor. He seems to have been in 2 billion movies, and he’s in “Hollow Man” with K.B. ---
**Author:** ![Havoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Havoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Havoc)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/7 "2000-08-10T19:49:47Z")
> [@](#): > > The Oracle says: Winston Churchill has a Bacon number of 3. > > Winston Churchill was in Further Prophecies of Nostradamus (1942) with Franklin Delano Roosevelt > Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in Contact (1997) with Marc Macaulay > Marc Macaulay was in Wild Things (1998) with Kevin Bacon ---
**Author:** ![mouthbreather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a698b9/32.png) [@mouthbreather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mouthbreather)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/8 "2000-08-10T19:54:03Z")
In a similar thread back in April (found [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=21126)) Anrold W. sez: > [@](#): > > I think for high Kevin Bacon numbers you will have to go to foreign films. I looked up the vietnamese movie “The Scent of Green Papaya”, aka “Mui du du xanh” (1993) and picked an actor from that movie. I ended up with a Kevin Bacon number of 5. > > Lu Man San was in Mui du du xanh (1993) with Tran Nu Yen-Khe > Tran Nu Yen-Khe was in Xich lo (1995) with Manh Cuong Tran > Manh Cuong Tran was in Three Seasons (1999) with Harvey Keitel > Harvey Keitel was in Little Nicky (2000) with Clint Howard > Clint Howard was in My Dog Skip (2000) with Kevin Bacon ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/9 "2000-08-10T19:54:35Z")
My goodness. I just discovered that _I_ have a Bacon number of 4. Ellen works with S. Hopkins, S. Hopkins is the sister of Josh Hopkins Josh Hopkins was in Perfect Storm, The (2000) with Diane Lane, Diane Lane was in My Dog Skip (2000) with Kevin Bacon. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/10 "2000-08-10T19:55:16Z")
Oh, yes. The infamous Kevin Bacon site. I tried this about four months ago, thinking myself the ONE to stump it. My killer celebrity? Charles Nelson Reilly. I think he was a 4. Amazing. My hat’s off to anyone who can get above a 4. struuter ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/11 "2000-08-10T20:01:31Z")
IIRC, Boris Karloff is a 2. Late in his career, he was in a movie with Jack Nicholson (which was very early in Nicholson’s career). Anybody who was in a movie with Boris Karloff is a 3 at most. When I discovered that site a few years ago, I tried getting some foreign actors from the IMDb and trying them at random. There are some interesting bottlenecks. Lots of recent Russian actors make the Bacon connection through _The Projectionist_. I even tried Sergei Eisenstein, and he’s a 4. I think the only 5 I ever found was by trying people who had been in movies with Eisenstein. And there are islands that are unconnected from the greater universe of Baconosity. There are people in movies like _Manos, the Hands of Fate_ who aparently never did anything else. ---
**Author:** ![tshirts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@tshirts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tshirts)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/12 "2000-08-10T20:07:56Z")
I’m always a couple of decades behind my son and daughter. I’ll come up with a name like James Mason, and it will take us all over Hollywood. The link did it in 2! With the movie “Prince Valient”. Like any would have ever seen that. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/13 "2000-08-10T20:18:51Z")
Also, try TV actors. They sometimes have limited theatrical movies, so they’re further from KB than you’d expect. But then as their career builds, the distance from KB shrinks. Jeri Ryan, 7 of 9, used to be further from KB than you’d think. She only had 1 theatrical movie to her credit in 1997 (Men Cry Bullets), and her co-stars were fairly obscure. Her co-stars got more gigs, and she went down to a KB# of 3. And now she’s in 3 movies released or being released in 2000, which brings her down to a 2. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/14 "2000-08-10T20:23:06Z")
There are actors that are completely severed from KB, however. Fred Ott, the first person to be photographed in the motion picture experiments of Thomas A. Edison, only has 2 movies to his credit, and he was the only actor in them. And since he died before KB was born, it’s unlikely that they’ll ever be linked. (Unless someone makes a documentary about Edison with footage of Ott and has Bacon narrate it.) ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/15 "2000-08-10T20:24:22Z")
Look again, struuter. CNR now has a rating of 2. So does Ron Jeremey. So does Divine. Ditto with Buster Keaton and Majic Johnson. Until I tried John Belushi, I didn’t know Kevin Bacon was in Animal House. Rating of 1 on the Bacon scale. The program claimed **Leslie Nielson** never appeared in any mainstream movies, so I found a glich in the program, if nothing else. (Leslie Nielson gets a rating of two: Nielson with Robert Hays in Airplane!; Robert Hays and Bacon in She’s Having A Baby). One thing I noticed is that Kevin has at least three movies in post production, with a plethora of stars. The dirty, cheating bastard! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/16 "2000-08-10T20:30:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Winston Churchill was in Further Prophecies of Nostradamus (1942) with Franklin Delano Roosevelt > Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in Contact (1997) with Marc Macaulay > Marc Macaulay was in Wild Things (1998) with Kevin Bacon Good heavens . . . isn’t that stretching it a bit? FDR was “in” _Contact_, I suppose, the way Richard Nixon was “in” _The Ice Storm_. The man had been dead for 53 years when the movie was made. It isn’t as if he answered a casting call. ---
**Author:** ![struuter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@struuter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/struuter)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/17 "2000-08-10T20:34:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sealemon88 \* > \*\*Look again, struuter. CNR now has a rating of 2. > \*\* The world is getting smaller every day… Thanks, sealemon88. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Shaky\_Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@Shaky\_Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shaky_Jake)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/18 "2000-08-10T20:50:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sealemon88 \* > > So does Ron Jeremey. I tried cheating with porn star names too - John Holmes, Kitten Natividad, Marilyn Chambers, Linda Lovelace. I figured I had it cold when I remembered Chesty Morgan…never got above a 3. Chesty Freakin’ Morgan! A 3! We need look no further for proof of insidious alien invasion of planet Earth. This Kevin Bacon thing is downright scary. I’m headin’ for the bunker, tonight. Shaky Jake ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/19 "2000-08-10T21:13:14Z")
Somebody published a short picture book called _Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon_ back in 1996 or so. It had pictures of stars with dotted lines and arrow running between them, all ending in pictures of The Baconmeister. You know, the Baconization Game always reminds me of that doggie treats commercial where we get to see things from the dog’s perspective and hear the dog’s thoughts. “I smell BACON!” the dog’s thoughts practically scream. “Bacon bacon bacon bacon! Only one thing smells like bacon, and that’s bacon!” ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2000, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853/20 "2000-08-10T21:37:43Z")
Bin Li was in Lan feng zheng (1993) with Ping Zhong Ping Zhong was in Red Corner (1997) with Bradley Whitford Bradley Whitford was in Vital Signs (1990) with William Devane William Devane, as we ALL know by now, was in Hollow Man (2000) with Kevin Bacon I have come up with numerous people who could not be connected to Kevin Bacon . . . yet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon/28853.md?page=2)