Kevin Bacon

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For other uses, see Kevin Bacon (disambiguation).
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Bacon SDCC 2014.jpg
Bacon at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con
Born Kevin Norwood Bacon
(1958-07-08) July 8, 1958 (age 66)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Occupation Actor, director, producer, musician
Years active 1978–present
Spouse(s) Kyra Sedgwick (m. 1988)
Children Travis Bacon
Sosie Bacon
Relatives Michael Bacon (brother)
Website www.baconbros.com

Kevin Norwood Bacon[1] (born July 8, 1958)[2] is an American actor and musician whose films include musical-drama film Footloose (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller JFK (1991), the legal drama A Few Good Men (1992), the historical docudrama Apollo 13 (1995) and the mystery drama Mystic River (2003). He starred on the Fox television series The Following from 2013 to 2015. Bacon has won a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award. He was named by The Guardian as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.[3]

Bacon has also become an icon for the concept of interconnectedness (as in social networks), having been popularized by the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon". In 2007, he created SixDegrees.org, a charitable foundation. In 2003, Bacon received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[4]

Early life and education

Bacon, one of six children, was born and raised in a close-knit family in Philadelphia.[2] His mother, Ruth Hilda (née Holmes; 1916–1991), taught at an elementary school and was a liberal activist,[2] while his father, Edmund Norwood Bacon (May 2, 1910 – October 14, 2005), was a well-respected architect and a prominent Philadelphian who had been Executive Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission for many years.[5]

At 16, in 1975, Bacon won a full scholarship to and attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts at Bucknell University,[6] a state-funded five-week arts program at which he studied theater under Dr. Glory Van Scott. The experience solidified Bacon's passion for the arts.[4][5]

Acting career

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Further information: Kevin Bacon filmography

Early work

Bacon left home at age 17 to pursue a theater career in New York City, where he appeared in a production at the Circle in the Square Theater School. "I wanted life, man, the real thing", he later recalled to Nancy Mills of Cosmopolitan. "The message I got was 'The arts are it. Business is the devil's work. Art and creative expression are next to godliness.' Combine that with an immense ego and you wind up with an actor."[7] Bacon's debut in the fraternity comedy National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 did not lead to the fame for which he had hoped, and Bacon returned to waiting tables and auditioning for small roles in theater.[5] He briefly worked on the television soap operas Search for Tomorrow (1979) and Guiding Light (1980–81) in New York.

1980s

In 1980, he had a prominent role in the now iconic slasher film Friday the 13th.[8] Some of his early stage work included Getting Out performed at New York's Phoenix Theater, and Flux which he did at Second Stage Theatre during their 1981–1982 season.[9]

In 1982, he won an Obie Award for his role in Forty Deuce,[10] and soon after made his Broadway debut in Slab Boys, with then-unknowns Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. However, it was not until he portrayed Timothy Fenwick that same year in Barry Levinson's Diner – costarring Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Tim Daly and Ellen Barkin – that he made an indelible impression on film critics and moviegoers alike.[11]

Bolstered by the attention garnered by his performance in Diner, Bacon starred in the 1984 box-office smash Footloose.[9] Richard Corliss of TIME likened Footloose to the James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause and the old Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland musicals, commenting that the film includes "motifs on book burning, mid-life crisis, AWOL parents, fatal car crashes, drug enforcement, and Bible Belt vigilantism."[12] To prepare for the role, Bacon enrolled at a high school as a transfer student named "Ren McCormick" and studied teenagers before leaving in the middle of the day.[5][13] Bacon did earn strong reviews for Footloose,[14] and he appeared on the cover of People magazine soon after its release. Bacon's critical and box office success led to a period of typecasting in roles similar to the two he portrayed in Diner and Footloose. Bacon would have difficulty shaking this on-screen image. For the next several years he chose films that cast him against either type and experienced, by his own estimation, a career slump. In 1988, he starred in John Hughes' comedy She's Having a Baby[9] and the following year he was in another comedy called The Big Picture.[15]

1990s

In 1990, Bacon had two successful roles. He played a character who saved his town from under-the-earth "graboid" monsters in the comedy/horror film Tremors[16] and portrayed an earnest medical student experimenting with death in Joel Schumacher's Flatliners.[9] Bacon's next project was to star opposite Elizabeth Perkins in He Said, She Said. Despite lukewarm reviews and low audience turnout, He Said, She Said was illuminating for Bacon. Required to play a character with sexist attitudes, he admitted that the role was not that large a stretch for him.[9]

By 1991, Bacon began to give up the idea of playing leading men in big-budget films and to remake himself as a character actor. "The only way I was going to be able to work on 'A' projects with really 'A' directors was if I wasn't the guy who was starring", he confided to The New York Times writer Trip Gabriel. "You can't afford to set up a $40 million movie if you don't have your star."[17]

He performed that year as gay prostitute Willie O'Keefe in Oliver Stone's JFK.[18] He went on to play a prosecuting attorney in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men.[19] Later that year he returned to the theater to play in Spike Heels, directed by Michael Greif.[9]

In 1994, Bacon earned a Golden Globe nomination for his role in The River Wild[9] opposite Meryl Streep. He described the film to Chase in Cosmopolitan as a "grueling shoot," in which "every one of us fell out of the boat at one point or another and had to be saved." His next film, Murder in the First, earned him the Broadcast Film Critic's Association Award in 1995,[9] the same year that he starred in the blockbuster hit Apollo 13.[20]

Bacon reverted to his trademark dark role once again in Sleepers in 1996.[21] This role was in stark contrast to his appearance in the lighthearted romantic comedy, Picture Perfect[9] the following year. Bacon also made his debut as a director in 1996 with the television film Losing Chase, which was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, winning one.[22] Bacon again resurrected his oddball mystique that year as a mentally-challenged houseguest in Digging to China,[9] and as a disc jockey corrupted by payola in Telling Lies in America.[9] As the executive producer of 1998's Wild Things, Bacon reserved a supporting role for himself, and went on to star in Stir of Echoes (directed by David Koepp) in 1999.[23]

2000s

Bacon speaking before a premiere of Taking Chance in February 2009

In 2000, he appeared in Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man.[24] Bacon, Colin Firth and Rachel Blanchard depict a ménage à trois in their film, Where the Truth Lies.[25] Bacon and director Atom Egoyan have condemned the MPAA ratings board decision to give the film their "NC-17" rating over the preferable "R". Bacon decried the decision, commenting: "I don't get it, when I see films (that) are extremely violent, extremely objectionable sometimes in terms of the roles that women play, slide by with an R, no problem, because the people happen to have more of their clothes on."[26] Bacon was again acclaimed for a dark starring role playing an offending pedophile on parole in the 2004 film The Woodsman; he was nominated best actor receiving the Independent Spirit Award.[27]

He appeared in the HBO Films production of Taking Chance, a film based on a story of the same name written by Lieutenant Colonel Michael Strobl, an American 'Desert Storm' war veteran.[28] The film premiered on HBO on February 21, 2009. Bacon won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie for his role.

2010s

On July 15, 2010, it was confirmed that Bacon would appear in Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class.[29] His character was mutant villain Sebastian Shaw.[30]

In March 2012, Bacon was featured in a performance of Dustin Lance Black's play, '8' — a staged reenactment of the federal trial that overturned California's Prop 8 ban on same-sex marriage — as Attorney Charles J. Cooper.[31] The production was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre and broadcast on YouTube to raise money for the American Foundation for Equal Rights.[32][33]

From 2013 to 2015, Bacon starred as Ryan Hardy in the FOX television series The Following.[34] He won a Saturn Award for Best Actor on Television for his role in 2013.[35]

In 2015, a Huffington Post interview with Bacon as well as several magazines stated, he would like to return to the Tremors franchise. However, he doesn't appear in the upcoming Tremors 5: Bloodline.

Advertising work

From 2012, Bacon has appeared in a major advertising campaign for the EE mobile network in the United Kingdom, based on the Six Degrees concept and his various film roles.[36][37] In 2015, Kevin Bacon became a commercial spokesperson for the U.S. egg industry.[38]

Personal life

Bacon has been married to actress Kyra Sedgwick since September 4, 1988; they met on the set of the PBS version of Lanford Wilson's play Lemon Sky. He has said "The time I was hitting what I considered to be bottom was also the time I met my wife, our kids were born, good things were happening. And I was able to keep supporting myself; that always gave me strength."[7] Bacon and Sedgwick have starred together in Pyrates, Murder in the First, The Woodsman, and Loverboy. They have two children, Travis Sedgwick (b. 1989) and Sosie Ruth (b. 1992). The family resides on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.[39] Bacon was previously in a five-year relationship with actress Tracy Pollan in the 1980s.[40]

Bacon has spoken out for the separation of church and state,[41][42] and told The Times in 2005 that he did not "believe in God."[43] However, he has also said that he is not anti-religion.[44]

Bacon and Sedgwick appeared in will.i.am's video "It's a New Day", which was released following Barack Obama's 2008 presidential win. The pair lost part of their savings in the Ponzi scheme of infamous swindler Bernard Madoff.[45][46]

They learned in 2011 via their appearance on the PBS TV show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates that he and Sedgwick are tenth cousins, once removed.[47] They also appeared in a video[48] promoting the "Bill of Reproductive Rights," supporting among other things a woman's right to choose and access to birth control.[49]

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

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Main article: Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Bacon is the subject of the trivia game titled Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, based on the idea that, due to his prolific screen career covering a diverse range of genres, any Hollywood actor can be linked to another in a handful of steps based on their associations with Bacon. The name of the game derives from the idea of six degrees of separation. Though he was initially dismayed by the game, the meme stuck, and Bacon eventually embraced it, forming the charitable initiative SixDegrees.org, a social networking site intended to link people and charities to each other.[50]

The measure of proximity to Bacon has been mathematically formalized as the Bacon Index and can be referenced at websites including Oracle Of Bacon, which is in turn based upon Internet Movie Database data. Google even added a feature to their search engine, whereby searching for an actor's name followed by the words 'Bacon Number' will show the ways in which that actor is connected to Kevin Bacon.[51] A similar measurement exists in the mathematics community where one measures how far one is removed from co-writing a mathematical paper with the famous mathematician Paul Erdős. This is done by means of the Erdős number which is 0 for Paul Erdős himself, 1 for someone who co-wrote an article with him, 2 for someone who co-wrote with someone who co-wrote with him, etc. People have combined the Bacon Index and the Erdős number to form the Erdős–Bacon number, which is the sum of the two.[52]

Music

Kevin formed a band called The Bacon Brothers with his brother, Michael. The duo have released six albums.[53]

Awards and nominations

Year Association Category Nominated work Result
1995 Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture The River Wild Nominated
1996 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards Best Actor Murder in the First Won
1996 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Apollo 13 Won
1996 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Murder in the First Nominated
2001 MTV Movie Awards Best Villain Hollow Man Nominated
2003 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Cast Mystic River Won
2004 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Mystic River Nominated
2005 Satellite Awards Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama The Woodsman Nominated
2005 Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie Sleazebag Beauty Shop Nominated
2009 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie Taking Chance Nominated
2009 Satellite Awards Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Taking Chance Nominated
2009 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Frost/Nixon Nominated
2010 Golden Globe Awards Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film Taking Chance Won
2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Taking Chance Won
2011 Teen Choice Awards Choice Movie Villain X-Men: First Class Nominated
2013 Saturn Awards Best Actor on Television The Following Won
2014 People's Choice Awards Favorite Dramatic TV Actor The Following Nominated
2014 Saturn Awards Best Actor on Television The Following Nominated

References

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  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Cosmopolitan. March 1991, p. 92.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ "I think there is a puritanical wind that is blowing. I have never seen such a lack of separation between church and state in America. I don't believe in God, but if I did I would say that sex is a God-given right." Wendy Ide, "The Outsider Wants In", The Times (London), December 1, 2005.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  46. ↑ Bacon confirmed this on Late Show with Craig Ferguson, June 8, 2009
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  51. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  52. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  53. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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