Kevin Bacon

I love the sound of Kevin Bacon’s voice. There’s something about it that’s just so mesmerizing to me. I first became a fan of his when I saw the movie Footloose. There are many interesting things about Kevin Bacon that I’d like to share with you now. You’re welcome.

Kevin Norwood Bacon was born on July 8, 1958 in Philly. What a cool middle name! He shares it with his dad, Edmund Norwood Bacon. I have my mom’s middle name. I’m her favorite. My boyfriend’s best friend growing up was Chris Bacon. I doubt he’s related to Kevin but I tell you this because the parents gave Chris the middle initial P. That’s funny. Crispy Bacon. Get it?

Acting

Kevin Bacon left home at 17 to try and make it as an actor. His first gig was a pretty good one. He landed a part in National Lampoon’s Animal House. When he realized that wasn’t his big break, he went back to waiting tables. He also acted bit parts on the soaps Search for Tomorrow and Guiding Light.

The 80’s began and his career started picking up. Bacon began getting everyone’s attention when he played Ren McCormick in the 1984 movie Footloose. He has done a lot since then and currently has close to 90 acting credits. He also has directed and produced movies. If this wasn’t enough, Kevin is a musician. He and his brother Michael are The Bacon Brothers. I have one of their albums (they’ve recorded several) and it’s really good. You should check them out.

Love Life

Kevin Bacon dated Tracy Pollan for five years in the 80’s. She played Michael J. Fox’s girlfriend on Family Ties and then became his wife in real life. I don’t know the whole story there. Maybe she was still with Kevin when she met Michael. Scandalous! Michael and Tracy have been married 30 years now, so I guess that whole thing worked out. Kevin is married to actress Kyra Sedgwick and they too will celebrate 30 years of marriage this year. Good for them. I like marriages that last. Mine lasted 12 years.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

In addition to his awesome voice, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon is one of my favorite things about this actor. The six degrees thing is a concept that any actor is six steps or less away from Kevin Bacon. This happens because Kevin has done so many different types of roles that he can easily be connected to everyone in the industry. Bacon says he didn’t like the game initially because he thought he was being made fun of.

The Bacon Number of an actor is the number of degrees they are from Bacon. All of this is based on the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos. I read his book, “The Man Who Loved Only Numbers”. It was awesome. The Erdos number is the distance between Erdos and another person but is based on cowritten scholarly papers instead of movies. There are a few people who have both a Bacon and an Erdos number.

Danica McKellar from The Wonder Years (I love her!) has both. Her Erdos number is 4 and her Bacon number is 2. This means that she coauthored a paper with someone who has an Erdos number of 3, who coauthored a paper with someone who had an Erdos number of 2, who coauthored a paper with Erdos. Her Bacon number of 2 means that she’s costarred with someone who costarred in a movie with Kevin Bacon. Her Erdos-Bacon number is therefore 6 (the sum of the two numbers). Clear as mud? It’s all very fascinating to me.

Trivia

• Kevin Bacon launched the charity SixDegrees.org in 2007.
• He was the first choice for the Charlie Sheen role in Being John Malkovich.
• Kevin has a son (Travis) and daughter (Sosie) with wife Kyra.
• Daughter Sosie plays Skye in the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why.
• He and his wife lost most of their life savings in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
• Kevin is a distant cousin of Robert Redford and Valerie Bertinelli. Aren’t we all related somehow?
• His wife is his 9th cousin. “This is my wife, cousin Kyra.”
• Studio execs didn’t think he was sexy enough for his Footloose role. They wanted Tom Cruise or Rob Lowe. Tom Cruise as Ren McCormack? Ick.
• He appeared naked in Wild Things and Hollow Man. I enjoyed that very much.

 

It was fun researching for this blog. I especially loved the Erdos-Bacon stuff. Numbers are awesome. Thanks for reading. Please check back in a few days for a new blog.