6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon – A Crash Course

The main goal of this website is to increase knowledge, both academic and trivial. Maybe even more so trivial. And what, good readers, could be more trivially glorious than a round of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. If not an expert at this particular niche of cocktail party fodder, I’m certainly an authority.

An idea exists that everyone on earth is linked by six degrees of separation or less. Leave it to a couple drunk college kids to take this idea to its most entertaining end, watch Footloose and write a book about how Kevin Bacon is the center of the entertainment universe. If you think it stopped there, you are sorely mistaken. Someone built a site mining Wikipedia so you can type in literally any actor and link them instantly. Even the Hollow Man himself took the eponymous game in stride and named his non-profit charity after it. And I, your Head Librarian, play it absolutely all the time.

Here’s how it works here in The Library. There are two main ways to play:

1. Shortest link possible – You get up to 6, but using fewer is better
2. 6 degrees exactly – For you literalists out there who like a challenge

Our Rules

• Movies only, no TV shows or mini-series (Made-For-TV movies count if challenger allows).
• Voice acting always counts, both voiceover narration and animated movies.
• Must be IN the movie. No producers, directors, key grips, etc. Gotta be seen on screen.
• No repeating movies or actors.
• No looking people up while solving!

An example of #1: You are issued a challenge to link Tom Cruise to Kevin Bacon.

• Shortest link: Tom Cruise is in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon

If you were actually issued that “challenge”, your friend is a chump and needs a Netflix login STAT.

For an example of #2, indulge me for a moment. After I worked at a movie theater for a few years, and especially after meeting my 6 degree soulmate Riley, we decided to spice up the whole structure. Why stop at Kevin Bacon? Why not any two actors? What about two really easy actors to link, but you put an absurd handicap in the middle, like “Must use a black and white WWII movie” when linking millennial tweens? We began to take the game to its outer limits, and we’re still going to this day. Oh, and I refer to all genders with the catchall “actor”. Mainly because Geena Davis said so.

So, let’s venture outside the Bacon-verse. In fact, let’s do something I would doodle in countless college notebooks while slightly dazing but looking every bit the studious note taker. I call it, The Degree Grid. Take two famous actors that are in a movie together (“Brad Pitt!” someone shouts. “Edward Norton!”) then link them in one degree…. then 2…. then 3…. you get the idea? How about a visual aide.

The Degree Grid

Brad Pitt	Brad Pitt	Brad Pitt	Brad Pitt	Brad Pitt	Brad Pitt
Fight Club	Sleepers	Ocean’s 12	Once…Hollywood	In/view.Vampire	The Big Short
Ed Norton	Robert De Niro	Cath. Zeta-Jones	Leo DiCaprio	Tom Cruise	Steve Carrell
	The Score	Chicago	Wolf of Wall St	Collateral	Foxcatcher
	Ed Norton	Richard Gere	Margot Robbie	Jamie Foxx	Mark Ruffalo
		Primal Fear	Bombshell	Ali	Avengers End
		Ed Norton	Charlize Theron	Will Smith	Vin Diesel
			The Italian Job	Enemy // State	Saving Pvt Ryan
			Ed Norton	Barry Pepper	Tom Hanks
				25th Hour	That Thing U Do
				Ed Norton	Liv Tyler
					Hulk
					Ed Norton

Yes, I often do this for fun. No, I didn’t look anything up. Yes, I really did use a unique movie and actor in every box. If you look closely, I even threw a Kevin Bacon movie in, just for laughs.

You will find throughout the Movies section of The Library little tidbits to help you along your own 6DoKB challenges. And just to see if anyone is reading this article and in an attempt to fill the comments with something G-rated, I bequeath you this challenge to get you started:

Michael J Fox to Kevin Bacon. (hint: you can do this with one actor. No peeking at IMDB!)

Let me know what you come up with!