On This Day: July 8…
Today is Kevin Bacon’s birthday. He was born in 1958 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a city planner and political activist.
You may have heard of John Guare’s 1990 play Six Degrees of Separation, in which it was hypothesized that everyone is connected by six of fewer occurrences of circumstance or acquaintance. It took a couple of drunken frat boys from Pennsylvania to turn the idea into Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, where Kevin is the apparent center of the universe when it comes to connecting the dots between actors and actresses.
Today is also Faye Emerson’s birthday. Faye was born in 1917 and starred in films such as Destination: Tokyo and Uncertain Glory, and appeared frequently as a guest panelist on Steve Allen’s I’ve Got a Secret. She’s connected with Kevin Bacon in that she starred in A Face in the Crowd with Walter Matthau, who appeared in JFK with Kevin Bacon in 1991. See? Just two degrees of separation between them, or should I say two degrees of Kevin Bacon?!
Marty Feldman would have been another year older today if he hadn’t died while shooting the movie Yellowbeard in Mexico City in 1982. He was born in the East End of London, England in 1933, the son of a Jewish dressmaker. In 1976 he appeared in the Italian foreign language film 40 gradi all’ombra del lenzuolo, or Sex with a Smile as it was released in the United States. One of his costars was Tomas Milian, who also costarred with Kevin in JFK! Again, two degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Academy Award winner Anjelica Huston, star of Prizzi’s Honor and The Addams Family, daughter of John and Rikki Huston, was born on this day in 1951. She costarred with David Keith in the 2002 movie Axis, who appeared in Novocaine with Kevin Bacon in 2001. Anjelica also qualifies by having lived with Prizzi’s Honor costar Jack Nicholson for sixteen years, while Jack starred with Mr. Bacon in 1992’s A Few Good Men. Two degrees, twice.
Center of the Universe. Hmmm… Nice title…
The 6 degree game is fun, but I prefer to have 2 random actor names, rather then just trying to lead back to Kevin Bacon. Heres a tip. There is an internet sight out there that is called the “Oracle of Bacon” you can put in any 2 acotrs names and it will tell you the link between them using actors in movies.
My personal philosiphy in this, as I have played this without aid from the internet as a party game, is that every actor can be linked to every actor within 6 moves (not movies). I have had a few that seemed impossible, but when checked with the online oracle only 1 such combination yeilded a negative result, so my philosiphy has been proven wrong, but try it just for fun anyway.