Kevin Bacon

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July 8, 1958

Kevin Norwood Bacon

Kyra Sedgwick (1988–present; 2 children)

Actor

X Men First Class (2011)

Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

Elephant White (2011)

Bored to Death (TV series) (1 episode, 2010

SUPER (2010)

Beyond All Boundaries (short) (2009)

These Vagabond Shoes (short) (2009)

My One and Only (2009)

Taking Chance (TV movie) (2009)

Frost/Nixon (2008)

Saving Angelo(short) (2007)

Rails & Ties (2007)

Death Sentence (2007)

The Air I Breathe (2007)

Where the Truth Lies (2005)

Beauty Shop (2005)

Loverboy (2005)

Cavedweller (2004)

The Woodsman (2004)

In the Cut (2003) (uncredited)

Mystic River (2003)

Where Are They Now?: A Delta Alumni Update (video short) (voice) (2003)

Trapped (2002)

Novocaine (2001) (uncredited)

Hollow Man (2000)

My Dog Skip (2000)

Stir of Echoes (1999)

Wild Things (1998)

Digging to China (1998)

Telling Lies in America (1997)

Destination Anywhere (1997)

Picture Perfect (1997)

Sleepers (1996)

Balto (1995) (voice)

Apollo 13 (1995)

Murder in the First (1995)

Frasier (TV series) (voice) (1994)

The River Wild (1994)

The Air Up There (1994)

New York Skyride (1994)

A Few Good Men (1992)

JFK (1991)

He Said, She Said (1991)

Queens Logic (1991)

Pyrates (1991)

Flatliners (1990)

Tremors (1990)

The Big Picture (1989)

Criminal Law (1988)

She's Having a Baby (1988)

Lemon Sky (1988) (TV)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

End of the Line (1987)

White Water Summer (1987)

Quicksilver (1986)

The Little Sister (1985) (TV) (uncredited)

Mister Roberts (1984) (TV)

Footloose (1984)

Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983)

The Demon Murder Case (1983) (TV)

Forty Deuce (1982)

Diner (1982)

The Guiding Light (6 episodes, 1980-1981)

Only When I Laugh (1981)

Friday the 13th (1980)

Hero at Large (1980)

Search for Tomorrow" (1951) TV series (unknown episodes, 1979)

The Gift (1979) (TV)

Starting Over (1979)

Animal House (1978)

Director

The Closer (TV series) (4 episodes, 2006-2009)

Loverboy (2005)

Losing Chase (TV movie) (1996)

Soundtrack

The Woodsman (writer: "Chop Wood, Carry Water") (2004)

Red Betsy (writer: "WHEN YOU DECIDE YOU'VE STAYED TOO LONG") (2003)

Telling Lies in America (writer: "Medium Rare") (1997)

Pyrates (performer: "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me", "Tainted Love") (1991)

Producer

Loverboy (producer) (2005)

The Woodsman (executive producer) (2004)

Wild Things (executive producer) (1998)

Appearances

Children of the Atom: Filming X-Men: First Class (video documentary) (2011)

Alter Egos (TV series) (1 episode, 2011)

Hollywood's Top Ten (TV series) (1 episode, 2011)

Piers Morgan Tonight (TV series) (2 episodes, 2011)

Philadelphia Chickens (short) (voice) (2010)

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (TV series) (4 episodes, 2005-2011)

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (TV series) (8 episodes, 1994-2011)

The 7PM Project (TV series) (2 episodes, 2011)

Made in Hollywood (TV series) (1 episode, 2011)

X-Men: First Class 35mm Special (TV movie) (2011)

Daybreak (TV series) (1 episode, 2011)

Late Show with David Letterman (TV series) (2 episodes, 2007-2011)

A Look Behind the Scenes: Super (short) (2011)

17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (TV special) (2011)

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (2011)

Let's Dance! Kevin Bacon on 'Footloose' (video documentary short) (2011)

Remembering Willard (video documentary short) (2011)

The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards (TV special) (2010)

The Graham Norton Show (2 episodes, 2008-2010)

The Rachael Ray Show (TV series) (1 episode, 2010)

Sundance Skippy (documentary) (2010)

Entertainment Tonight (TV series) (6 episodes, 1986-2010)

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (2010)

15th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards (TV special) (2010)

My One and Only: Making of Documentary (video documentary short) (2009)

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards (TV special) (2009)

The Human Family Tree (TV documentary) (voice) (2009)

Tavis Smiley (TV series) (1 episode, 2009)

High Line Stories (TV series documentary) (2009)

The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet (TV series) (1 episode, 2009)

The Bonnie Hunt Show (TV series) (1 episode, 2009)

The 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (2009)

The 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards (TV special) (2009)

The Magic 7 (TV movie) (2009)

The Colbert Report (TV series) (1 episode, 2008)

Live with Regis and Kelly (TV series) (3 episodes, 2005-2008)

Connected: The Power of Six Degrees (2008) (TV documentary)

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards (TV special) (2008)

Today (TV series) (2 episodes, 1989-2008)

Animal House: The Inside Story (TV movie) (2008)

The Graham Norton Show (1 episode, 2008)

New York, I Love You (2008)

19th Annual GLAAD Media Awards (TV special ) (2008)

Howard Stern on Demand (voice) (1 episode, 2007)

Late Night with Conan O'Brien (TV series) (5 episodes, 1997-2007)

Up Close with Carrie Keagan (TV series) (1 episode, 2007)

Life After Film School (TV series) (1 episode, 2007)

Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show
(TV series) (2 episodes, 2003-2007)

The View (TV series) (1 episode, 2007)

Jimmy Kimmel Live! (TV series) (1 episode, 2007)

The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (2007)

America's Game: The Superbowl Champions (TV series documentary) (2006)

Making 'Loverboy' (video short) (2006)

The 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards (TV special) (2006)

Will & Grace: The Final Bow (Curtain Call) (video short) (2006)

Will And Grace Will & Grace (TV series) (2 episodes, 2002-2006)

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (TV series) (1 episode, 2006)

The 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (2006)

Film '72 (TV series) (2 episodes, 2005)

Richard And Judy (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

Breakfast (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

Magacine (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

The Tony Danza Show (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

Comme au cinéma (TV series documentary) (1 episode, 2005)

Le grand journal de Canal+ (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

The Oprah Winfrey Show
(TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

Good Morning America
(TV series) (2 episodes, 1983-2005)

The 20th IFP Independent Spirit Awards (TV special) (2005)

The 47th Annual Grammy Awards (TV special) (2005)

Sunday Morning Shootout (TV series) (1 episode, 2005)

The Charlie Rose Show (TV series) (3 episodes, 2000-2004)

IFP Gotham Awards 2004 (TV special) (2004)

Footloose: Songs That Tell a Story (video short) (2004)

Footloose: A Modern Musical (video short) (2004)

Film Trix 2004 (TV documentary short) (2004)

Mystic River: From Page to Screen (TV documentary short) (2004) (TV)

Mystic River: Beneath the Surface (TV documentary short) (2004)

Natural Disasters: Forces of Nature (TV documentary short) (2004)(Narrator)

On-Air with Ryan Seacrest (1 episode, 2004)

Breakfast with the Arts (TV series) (1 episode, 2004)

Breakfast with the Arts (TV series) (1 episode, 2004)

The 2004 IFP/West Independent Spirit Awards (TV special) (2004)

NY Graham Norton (TV series) (1 episode, 2004)

The Sharon Osbourne Show (TV series) (1 episode, 2004)

The Wayne Brady Show (TV series) (2 episodes, 2003-2004)

Tribeca Film Festival Awards (TV movie) (2004)

Nyhetsmorgon (TV series) (1 episode, 2003)

Unseen + Untold: National Lampoon's Animal House (TV documentary) (2003)

200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons (TV mini-series documentary) (2003)

Imagine New York (documentary short) (2003)

Cartaz Cultural (TV series) (2003)

Elvis Lives (TV special) (2003)

Trapped: From Within (video documentary short) (2002)

VH1 Big in 2002 Awards (TV special) (2002)

VH-1 Behind the Movie (TV series documentary) (1 episode, 2002)

Broadway's Best (TV movie) (2002)

The Rosie O'Donnell Show
(TV series) (6 episodes, 1997-2002)

Christmas in Rockefeller Center (TV special) (2001)

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (TV series) (1 episode, 2001)

Freedom Downtime (documentary) (2001)

The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn (TV series) (1 episode, 2001)

God, the Devil and Bob (TV series) (voice) (1 episode, 2001)

Code of Conduct (video documentary short) (2001)

Biography (TV series documentary) (voice) (1 episode, 2001)

Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music (TV special documentary) (2001)

The Howard Stern Radio Show (TV series) (1 episode, 2000)

HBO First Look (TV series documentary) (1 episode, 2000)

Dennis Miller Live (TV series) (1 episode, 2000)

2000 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (TV special) (2000)

We Married Margo (2000)

Hollow Man: Anatomy of a Thriller (video documentary short) (2000)

Fleshing Out the 'Hollow Man' (video documentary) (2000)

Diner: On the Flip Side (video documentary short) (2000)

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (TV movie) (1999)

The Directors (TV series documentary) (2 episodes, 1999)

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars: America's Greatest Screen Legends (TV special) (1999)

The Yearbook: An 'Animal House' Reunion (video documentary) (1998)

1998 Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (TV movie) (1998)

Howard Stern (TV series) (5 episodes, 1996-1997)

1997 VH1 Fashion Awards (TV special) (1997)

The 39th Annual Grammy Awards (TV special)

MTV Video Music Awards (TV special) (1997)

Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life (TV special) (1997)

The 19th Annual CableACE Awards (TV special) (1997)

Mad About You (TV series) (1 episode, 1996)

Lost Moon: The Triumph of Apollo 13 (video documentary) (1996)

The 53rd Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (1996)

Showbiz Today (TV series) (1 episode, 1995)

The 52nd Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV special) (1995)

Cancelled Lives: Letters from the Inside (video documentary) (voice) (1993)

Oliver Stone: Inside Out (TV documentary) (1992)

A Little Vicious (documentary short) (voice) (1991)

Saturday Night Live (TV series) (1 episode, 1991)

Sinatra 75: The Best Is Yet to Come (TV special documentary) (1990)

The 45th Annual Golden Globe Awards (TV movie) (1988)

The 56th Annual Academy Awards (TV special documentary) (1984)

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

2001 Won Blockbuster Entertainment Award Favorite Actor - Science Fiction for: Hollow Man (2000)

Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

2003 Won BSFC Award Best Ensemble Cast for: Mystic River (2003). Shared with: Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Sean Penn & Tim Robbins

Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards

2010 Won Joel Siegel Award

1996 Won Critics Choice Award Best Actor for: Murder in the First (1995)

Chlotrudis Awards

2005 Nominated Chlotrudis Award Best Actor for: The Woodsman (2004)

Denver International Film Festival

2004 Won John Cassavetes Award

Emmy Awards

2009 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for: Taking Chance (2009) (TV) (HBO)

Ghent International Film Festival

2004 Won Special Mention for: The Woodsman (2004) for: his acting

Giffoni Film Festival

1997 Won Bronze Gryphon Best Actor for: Digging to China (1998)

Golden Globes, USA

2010 Won Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for: Taking Chance (2009)

1995 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture for: The River Wild (1994)

Independent Spirit Awards

2005 Nominated Independent Spirit Award Best Male Lead for: The Woodsman (2004)

MTV Movie Awards

2001 Nominated MTV Movie Award Best Villain for: Hollow Man (2000)

Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards

2005 Won Copper Wing Tribute Award

Satellite Awards

2009 Nominated Satellite Award Best Actor in a Miniseries or a Motion Picture Made for Television for: Taking Chance (2009) (TV)

2005 Nominated Golden Satellite Award Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for: The Woodsman (2004)

Screen Actors Guild Awards

2010 Won Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries for: Taking Chance (2009) (TV)

2009 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for: Frost/Nixon (2008). Shared with: Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Frank Langella, Matthew Macfadyen, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell & Michael Sheen

2004 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for: Mystic River (2003). Shared with: Laurence Fishburne, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Sean Penn & Tim Robbins

1996 Won Actor Outstanding Performance by a Cast for: Apollo 13 (1995). Shared with: Tom Hanks, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Kathleen Quinlan & Gary Sinise

1996 Nominated Actor Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for: Murder in the First (1995)

Teen Choice Awards

2011 Nominated Teen Choice Award Choice Movie Villain for: X-Men: First Class (2011)

2005 Nominated Teen Choice Award Choice Movie Sleazebag for: Beauty Shop (2005)

Walk of Fame (Hollywood)

2003 Won Star on the Walk of Fame Motion Picture September 30, 2003. At 6356 Hollywood Boulevard.

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Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, A Few Good Men, Stir of Echoes, Queens Logic, Wild Things, JFK, Murder in the First, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Footloose, Friday the 13th, and Balto.

Knowing that he wanted to be an actor by age 13, Bacon left home at age 17 to pursue a theater career in New York, where he was one of the youngest students ever admitted, and the youngest student to appear 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.

Bacon's decision to become an actor did not come without pressures. Describing his father to Mills as a "city-planning superstar", he set very high goals for himself because he "felt nothing less than stardom would be enough." However, his movie debut in the fraternity comedy Animal House in 1978 did not lead to the instant fame for which he had hoped, and Bacon returned to waiting tables and auditioning for small roles in theater. He did a couple of stints on television soap operas Search For Tomorrow (1979) and The Guiding Light (1980–81) in New York while waiting for larger roles to come along. He refused an offer of a television series based on Animal House to be filmed in California in order to remain close to the New York stage. 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.


Known for having what Entertainment Weekly called "bone-dry humor and [an] average-Joe ability to tell it like it is", Bacon has always been forthcoming about his lack of professional self-confidence, which has never stopped him from delivering powerful performances. In 1982, he won an Obie Award for his role in Forty-Deuce, a play about street hustlers, 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. Set in Baltimore during Christmas week of 1959, Diner depicts the lives of six young men in their early twenties who have been close friends since childhood but are gradually moving in different directions. By far the most aimless of the group, the surly, sarcastic Fenwick gets increasingly drunk as the story progresses, deriving great pleasure from playing practical jokes on his friends and outanswering contestants on the television quiz show College Bowl from the safety of his sofa. The New Yorker's Pauline Kael, who included Bacon's name on her list of the film's "amazing" performances, also noted that "with his pointed chin, and the look of a mad Mick, [he] keeps Fenwick morose and yet demonic." David Denby of New York found Fenwick "both attractive and creepily self-destructive", attributing much of Diner's success to the fact that it "offers a completed vision of life, ecstatic in its recovery of forgotten pleasures, melancholy in its knowledge of how small a chance these men ever had of reclaiming their freedom."


Bolstered by the attention garnered by his performance in Diner, Bacon starred in the 1984 box-office smash Footloose. Directed by Herbert Ross and packed with energetic musical dance sequences, the film tells the story of Ren McCormick, a streetwise Chicago teenager (Bacon was actually 24 years old when filming began) who, after moving with his mother to a repressive small town in the Midwest, is determined to reverse the town minister's ban on rock-and-roll made years earlier. 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." Part of the conflict centers around the relationship between the minister, played by John Lithgow, and his wild teenage daughter, played by Lori Singer, who falls in love with Bacon's character and joins forces with him to put on a dance in a neighboring town. 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. Sporting a punk haircut for the role and a rebellious James Dean-type attitude somewhat different than that of the Fenwick character in Diner, Bacon did earn strong reviews for Footloose, appearing on the cover of People magazine soon after its release. David Ansen of Newsweek noted that Footloose "works because Bacon [is] always a fine actor," while Corliss found his performance to be "smart and appealing". The film itself, wrote Ansen, "has a lively, sweet infectious spirit," providing a "jolt of disposable but pleasant energy that makes you want to roll back the rug and boogie."


Bacon's long-awaited exposure from these two films proved a mixed blessing, however, who found himself saddled with a new concern – that he had become typecast as the characters he portrayed in the films Diner and Footloose. Bacon would have difficulty shaking this on-screen image.
For the next several years Bacon chose films that cast him against either type and experienced, by his own estimation, a career slump.

In 1988 he portrayed a newlywed who, ambivalent about marriage, faces the added burden of impending fatherhood in John Hughes's comedy She's Having a Baby, costarring Elizabeth McGovern. The next year he starred in a Christopher Guest comedy called The Big Picture, playing a film student whose excessive pride leads to trouble after achieving instant Hollywood fame as a filmmaker. While The Nation found little else redeeming about the movie, it did comment on Bacon's "perfect face and unfailing charm as Nick", noting the actor's ability to "play just about anything".


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 – a role that People found him "far too accomplished" to play – and portrayed an earnest medical student experimenting with death in Joel Schumacher's Flatliners.


Bacon's next project was to star, opposite Elizabeth Perkins, in the 1991 romantic comedy He Said, She Said, codirected by Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver.

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."


His performance that year as gay prostitute Willie O'Keefe in Oliver Stone's JFK received tremendous critical acclaim, Premiere calling his work "flawless", while National Review described it as "stunning".

Encouraged by his JFK reviews, he went on to play another character role – prosecuting attorney Jack Ross in the 1992 military courtroom drama A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. Michael Sragow of The New Yorker found Bacon's performance to be the strongest in the film.

It was not until his work on The River Wild in 1994, however, that Bacon began to feel more confident about the success of his professional comeback. He earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for his portrayal of a compulsive liar whose boyish charm turns diabolic when he overtakes the raft of a former river guide – played by Meryl Streep – and her family on a white-water rafting trip.

No matter how grueling the shoot of The River Wild was, it could not compare to the hardships Bacon experienced preparing for his next film, where he won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award in 1995, Murder in the First . To transform himself into Henri Young, Bacon lost 20 pounds, shaved his head, and wore contact lenses that completely concealed his eyes and had to be removed every hour. He spent some time in a jail cell to get the feeling of being imprisoned. The film did well at the box office, and Bacon was given good reviews for his performance.

The wave of success left Bacon with little time to rest between projects. His subsequent film, Apollo 13, released in the summer of 1995, was a blockbuster.
Bacon reverted to his trademark dark role once again, as a brutal and sadistic reform school warden in Sleepers in 1996.

Bacon again resurrected his oddball mystique that year as a retarded houseguest in Digging to China, and as a disc jockey corrupted by payola in Telling Lies in America.
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, and in Paul Verhoeven's Hollow Man in 2000.