Monday, February 5, 2007

I Have a Bacon Number of 3! *UPDATED*

I had a dream the other night about Kevin Bacon. Nothing outrageous, he was just hanging out with me, that's all.
After I woke up, I wondered why I had a dream about Kevin Bacon. Couldn't think of anything. Then I remembered the Kevin Bacon game. You've probably heard of it, the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

History:
The trivia game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" is based on a variation of the concept of the small world phenomenon and states that any actor can be linked, through their film roles, to Kevin Bacon. The game requires a group of players to try to connect any film actor in history to Kevin Bacon as quickly as possible and in as few links as possible. The game was played across various college campuses as early as the early 1990s. Its name is a pun on the stage play Six Degrees of Separation.

The concept is simple, but finding the smallest number of links can be difficult. The way you link an actor with Bacon is like so:

  • Pick any film actor in history.
  • Link the actor you've chosen to Bacon via the films they've shared with other actors until you end up with Kevin Bacon himself.

Here is an example, using Elvis Presley:

  1. Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit (1969) with Edward Asner
  2. Edward Asner was in JFK (1991) with Kevin Bacon

Therefore Elvis Presley has a Bacon number of 2.

Now, I'm not an actor and mainly this game is about linking actors that have worked with others who have worked with others who have worked with others who have worked with Kevin Bacon. Despite all that, I myself have a Bacon Number of 3.

Here's my link tree:

I have a friend in LA who is used to be an Associate Casting Director named Kim Everett-Martin. She worked for Nancy Foy Casting (Nancy is the daughter of Fred Foy, legendary announcer/narrator of "The Lone Ranger" radio and television program).
Kim worked on a film in 2004 with Director Jay Russell called Ladder 49 (Jay was born in North Little Rock, AR).
Jay directed a film in 2000 called My Dog Skip with Kevin Bacon starring as Jack Morris in that film.

Me>Kim>Jay>Kevin

Bacon Number of 3

Sweet!

!!UPDATE!!
STOP THE PRESSES!

I just found out from a talented thespian, Jeff Caster, that I am linked to Kevin Bacon through him as well.
That means I have a Bacon Number of 3 times 2. Or is that Bacon Number of 3 squared?

What ever you call it, here's the breakdown on my second link to Kevin Bacon:

I have a cousin who's an actor and lives in Germany named Jeff Caster. (Jeff was in Dune, Anne Frank and Luther, most notably in the U.S.)
Jeff worked on a film called Running Scared with Arthur J. Nascarella (Nascarella was on the "The Sopranos" for a short time).
Nascarella was in a film called In The Cut with Kevin Bacon.

Me>Jeff>Arthur Nascarella>Kevin Bacon

Another Bacon Number of 3!

Doubly Sweet!

**Watch for my post about the great multi-faceted actor, Jeff Caster, in the near future.**

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