You’ve probably been there. It’s 2:00 AM, you’re four beers deep or maybe just staring at a half-empty bowl of popcorn, and someone brings up an actor so obscure you’re pretty sure they only existed in a 1994 straight-to-VHS thriller. Then, like clockwork, the challenge drops: "Bet you can't link them to Kevin Bacon."
Thirty years later, the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon calculator is still the internet's favorite way to prove that the world—or at least Hollywood—is tiny.
It's a weirdly addictive game. Honestly, it shouldn't work as well as it does. But whether you’re looking up a silent film star from the 1920s or a TikToker who just landed their first Netflix cameo, the "Bacon Number" usually clocks in at a 2 or a 3. It’s almost spooky.
The Drunken Night That Started It All
The whole thing didn't start in a high-tech lab or a Google brainstorming session. It started at Albright College in 1994. Three friends—Craig Fass, Brian Turtle, and Mike Ginelli—were watching Footloose. Then Quicksilver came on. Then they saw a trailer for another Bacon flick.
They realized the guy was everywhere.
They weren't just being fans; they were noticing a pattern. They wrote a letter to Jon Stewart, basically claiming Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe. When they appeared on his show, the world caught the bug.
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Kevin Bacon himself? He hated it at first. Imagine being a serious actor and having people walk up to you on the street just to touch you and yell "One degree!" He thought it was a giant joke at his expense, a way of saying he was a "lightweight" who just happened to be in a lot of movies. It took him years to realize it was actually a tribute to his insane work ethic and versatility. Now, he’s totally leaned in, even starting a charity called SixDegrees.org.
How the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon Calculator Actually Works
If you use a tool like the Oracle of Bacon, you aren't just seeing a random list. You’re looking at the result of a "Breadth-First Search" algorithm.
Think of it like a giant spiderweb. Every actor is a "node." Every movie they shared is an "edge" connecting them. To find the Bacon Number, the computer starts at Kevin Bacon and moves outward in circles.
- Bacon Number 0: That's just Kevin.
- Bacon Number 1: Anyone who was in a movie with him (like Tom Hanks in Apollo 13).
- Bacon Number 2: Anyone who was in a movie with a "Number 1" (like Zendaya, who was in Spider-Man: Homecoming with Marisa Tomei, who was in Loverboy with Bacon).
Technically, the math behind this is called "Small World" network theory. Mathematicians Duncan Watts and Steven Strogatz actually used the Kevin Bacon database to prove that complex networks—from the human brain to the U.S. power grid—rely on a few "shortcuts" to keep everything connected.
Is He Still the Center of Hollywood?
Here’s the thing: scientifically speaking, Kevin Bacon isn’t even the best center anymore. As of 2026, he usually sits around the 500th or 600th spot on the list of most-connected actors.
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Who's beating him? Usually, guys like Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel, or the late Christopher Lee. These are actors who do everything. They do indies, they do blockbusters, they do international films, and they’ve been doing it for fifty years. Samuel L. Jackson’s average "Jackson Number" is actually lower than Bacon’s average.
But "Six Degrees of Samuel L. Jackson" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Bacon remains the "center" because he’s the perfect bridge between different eras and genres of film. He’s the glue.
Finding the Un-Baconable
Can you find someone with a Bacon Number higher than 6? It’s surprisingly hard. Most professional actors in the Western world bottom out at 4.
To get a 7 or an 8, you usually have to go into the deep weeds of:
- Silent Era Foreign Films: Actors who died before the 1950s and only worked in places like Russia or Japan.
- Hyper-Niche Documentaries: People who only appeared as themselves in a single, obscure film.
- Experimental Casts: The cast of the 2004 cult-hit Primer famously had "infinite" Bacon numbers for a while because none of them had ever been in another movie. Once they started booking other gigs, they got sucked back into the Bacon-verse.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think you can use TV shows or commercials. In the "pure" version of the game, only theatrical films count. If you start including The Love Boat or Saturday Night Live guests, the numbers collapse instantly. Everyone becomes a 2.
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The real magic of the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon calculator is that it works using a relatively small set of data—just credited movie roles. It proves that we are all much more connected than we think.
Put the Theory to the Test
Next time you're bored, stop looking for the obvious ones. Skip Brad Pitt. Skip Meryl Streep. Try someone like:
- William Rufus Shafter: A guy from 1890s footage. (He’s a 7).
- Your favorite voice actor: Does anime count? Usually, if they have a "live action" credit somewhere.
- Historical Figures: Because of documentaries and archival footage, even people like JFK or Albert Einstein have Bacon Numbers (usually a 3).
Practical Next Steps
If you want to master the trivia night, stop focusing on the lead stars. Look for the "character actors"—the guys who show up in every 90s action movie as "Security Guard #2" or "Angry Landlord." Those are the real bridges in the 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon calculator. They are the ones who link the Oscar winners to the B-movie stars, making the whole network possible.
The world isn't getting bigger; we're just getting better at mapping how small it's always been.