# The Kevin Bacon Game **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 12, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739 "2001-01-12T19:01:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/1 "2001-01-12T19:01:13Z")
Using [The Oracle of Bacon](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/) website, I’ve figured out who one of only two actors (actors being a somewhat loose term) who have a Bacon number of 8. (For those that don’t know the game, an actor who has a Bacon number of 1 has played in a movie with Kevin Bacon. {Kevin Bacon himself has a Bacon number of 0.} Someone with a BN of 2 has been in a movie with someone who has been in a movie with Kevin Bacon. Productions that don’t count are TV shows, their pilots, miniseries, and other made-for-TV movies.) According to The Oracle of Bacon (which has data access to [The Internet Movie Database](http://www.imdb.com)), the BNs for all the actors: ```auto Bacon # # of Actors 0 1 (Kevin Bacon himself) 1 1469 2 105800 3 240195 4 52627 5 2931 6 309 7 75 8 2 (of whom I found one) ``` It’s a fun game to play: simply plug in a name of an actor who you think would have a large BN, then be surprised when it comes out much smaller. For example, **Glenn L. Martin** , founder of an airplane company and actor in one silent film only has a BN of 3: **Glenn L. Martin** was in **Girl of Yesterday, A (1915)** with **Donald Crisp** **Donald Crisp** was in **Prince Valiant (1954)** with **Robert Wagner** **Robert Wagner** was in **Wild Things (1998)** with **Kevin Bacon** Can anyone here find actors with BN’s of 4 or more? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/2 "2001-01-12T19:08:57Z")
I just found the second actor with a BN of 8. To be fair, he and the first one I found are only two apart, i.e., there’s an actor with a BN of 7 with whom both have acted in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/3 "2001-01-12T19:19:48Z")
Damn! 90% of my guesses have a quotient of **2**! Everyone from John Cassavetes to Beverly D’Angelo to Ron Ely. The only **3** ’s I got were Bela Lugosi and Margaret Dumont. ---
**Author:** ![TKD2DAN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@TKD2DAN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TKD2DAN)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/4 "2001-01-12T19:23:11Z")
Just for the record, James Arness and Raymond Burr also have BN’s of ZERO. So Kevin isn’t alone. ---
**Author:** ![TKD2DAN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@TKD2DAN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TKD2DAN)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/5 "2001-01-12T19:36:18Z")
Strike my last. I went back and checked, now they both show a 2. Hmm, must have updated the system since the last time I played in there. ---
**Author:** ![sdimbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sdimbert/32/20204_2.png) [@sdimbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sdimbert)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/6 "2001-01-12T20:01:33Z")
Not to brag of anything, but… [CRANKY OLD MAN] When I played this game, we didn’t have any _computers_ to help us… we did it by hand! In the snow! Uphill! _Both ways!!!_ [/CRANKY OLD MAN] We played this game a lot at a summer camp I worked at. The two I am proudest of (I figured them out!) are Charlie Chaplin and Olivia Hussy. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/7 "2001-01-12T20:06:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TKD2DAN \* > \*\*Strike my last. I went back and checked, now they both show a 2. Hmm, must have updated the system since the last time I played in there. \*\* Yeah, they must’ve. I know it wasn’t always based directly off of IMDb data, so it took time to update. For example, Jeri Lynn Ryan had been in a theatrical movie, but the Oracle said she wasn’t a valid actor, since to its knowledge she hadn’t been in one. ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/8 "2001-01-12T20:26:20Z")
Okay, I finally found a **4** – Jenny Lind. And now I’m quitting! ---
**Author:** ![oldscratch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ed655f/32.png) [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/9 "2001-01-12T21:31:21Z")
just fyi… a variation of this was played here in SD a little while ago. The only difference was we tried to figure out how close people were to Harvey Keitel’s [penis](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=41620). ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/10 "2001-01-12T22:04:24Z")
Darn… everyone I put in is a 2. then again I don’t know many actors but who would have thought Channon Roe and Michael T Weiss were 2’s? ---
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/11 "2001-01-12T23:14:50Z")
M. Chiqovani = 4 I. Demetrashvili = 5 L. Sokolovi = 5 I. Mamporya = 4 Niko Sanishvili = 4 Kokhta Karalashvili = 4 N. Tukhareli = 5 Ilia Zurabishvili = 5 Aleqsandre Imedashvili = 4 Yuliya Solntseva = 4 Maria Rutz = 5 Hans Hedemark = 5 Signe Danning = 5 Emmy Worm-Muller = 6 Whoohoo, six! Take that, Bacon! ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/12 "2001-01-13T03:17:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scupper \* > \*\*Emmy Worm-Muller = 6 > > Whoohoo, six! Take that, Bacon! \*\* Six? That’s not bad! BTW, is your username in reference to Scupper the Sea Dog of Golden Books fame? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/13 "2001-01-13T05:05:01Z")
I’m impressed. A serious waste of computer power, and no pornography in sight! And it’s so FAST! I am very happy I didn’t have to plug in all that data. Hmmmm, Colleen Moore with Mickey Rooney with Clint Howard with Kevin Bacon. There could probably be a whole subset using Clint Howard. Linda Lovelace with Gary Goodrow with Kevin Bacon. Hermione Gingold with Rance Howard (another of those damned Howards!) with Bacon. This is a tough game. I’ll need to do some research on people with only one movie, like Glenn Martin. (Knew a Dutch fellow named Glenn after Glen L. Martin because his father flew a Maryland in the war.) ---
**Author:** ![peepthis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9d8465/32.png) [@peepthis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peepthis)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/14 "2001-01-13T08:03:44Z")
After 5 minutes of toying around I only came up with one 4 (Xerem). But, when you peek into the Hall of Fame you discover: “Martin Goldstern wrote ‘a few short perl programs’ and found all of the 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, and 11s.”(!) How many 9s, 10s, and 11s are out there? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/15 "2001-01-14T22:29:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by peepthis \* > \*\*After 5 minutes of toying around I only came up with one 4 (Xerem). > > But, when you peek into the Hall of Fame you discover: > “Martin Goldstern wrote ‘a few short perl programs’ and found all of the 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, and 11s.”(!) > > How many 9s, 10s, and 11s are out there? > > \*\* I think once The Oracle was linked to IMDb, they “killed” all the BNs above 8. A lot of obscure movies also got logged into IMDb, so the computed numbers got lower. I think 8 is the greatest Bacon Number out there now. ---
**Author:** ![Geobabe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/geobabe/32/3908_2.png) [@Geobabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geobabe)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kevin-bacon-game/49739/16 "2001-01-14T23:24:54Z")
Now this is funny. I put in the name of a friend of mine, and her BN is 2! She has been in exactly _one_ movie.