My life was changed on the twelfth of July last year. That was the day that I got engaged and that was the day I became a believer in the Kevin Bacon theory.
More controversial than the single bullet theory or Darwin's theory of evolution. More revolutional than Einstein's theory of relativity and simpler to figure out than Boyle's Gas Law. The Kevin Bacon theory has had me under its spell everyday since then and I try to preach it to the masses whenever possible. I'm not sure who invented it but I've heard about it for months. I never believed it until I actually tried to make some links.
To put it simply, Kevin Bacon is the center of the entertainment universe. You can link almost any actor or actress to Kevin Bacon through film roles. According to "Entertainment Magazine," there is even a database on the internet that maps the fastest route to Bacon from any star.
Don't believe me? My fiance told me she heard about the theory the week before we got engaged on a local radio station. There was a guy who would link actors to Kevin Bacon. He was stumped by Angela Lansbury. Well, no problem! I know this may not be the most direct link but it is a link none the less — Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra in The Manchurian Candidate, Frank Sinatra and Ricardo Montalban in Cannonball Run II, Ricardo Montalban and Roddy McDowall in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and Roddy McDowall and Kevin Bacon in The Big Picture.
It is quite a fun mind teaser coming up with different routes from different people but some of the best Kevin Bacon movies to work with are Diner, JFK, A Few Good Men, and Queens Logic. After a while, a few names might keep coming up as great links. Some of my favorites are; Gene Hackman, Michael Caine, M. Emmet Walsh, Tom Cruise, Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, and Charles Bronson. Keep them in mind if you're ever stuck. Also remember some of the big cast movies like The Player, The Great Escape, JFK, Short Cuts, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Firm, Reservoir Dogs, and Terms of Endearment.
Believe me, Kevin Bacon is the seal of the prophets. He's the life of the party and every new movie brings us a new adventure. Can't wait until Apollo 13 or Murder in the First to see everyone in those movies and the new possibilities they produce.
(Of course you could actually pick any actor to do this with and I'm sure there are some that would be even easier to trace but I have spent hours on end doing this and Kevin Bacon seems to be the most logical terminus. He is alpha and omega).
Okay, smart guy. Link up some other people.
Gene Simmons and Tom Selleck in Runaway. Tom Selleck to Steve Guttenberg in Three Men and a Baby. Steve Guttenberg to Kevin Bacon in Diner. C'mon. Give me a tough one.
Ok, how about Yoshiko Kuga? Kuga to Toshiro Mifune in The Idiot. Mifune to Lou Diamond Phillips in Shadow of the Wolf. Phillips to Kiefer Sutherland in Young Guns. Sutherland to Kevin Bacon in Flatliners.
Rudy Ray Moore? Moore and Yaphet Kotto in Monkey Hustle. Kotto to Nichelle Nichols in Truck Turner. Nichols to Christian Slater in Star Trek VI. Slater to Kevin Bacon in Murder in the First.