There is an online calculator for Kevin Bacon’s Grades from the University of Virginia at OracleofBacon.org that uses the definitive internet movie database (at imdb.com). Craig Fass, Mike Ginelli, and Brian Turtle originally conceived of the game as students at Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1993. They noted that Kevin Bacon, who had appeared in nearly thirty respectably diverse movies at the time, represented a kind of movie. world nexus that he could be connected to any other actor with six steps or less. For example, here are Vivien Leigh’s results for Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire:
1. Vivien Leigh was in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Piedra (1961) with Jill St. John; 2. Jill St. John was in The Player (1992) with David Alan Grier; 3. David Alan Grier was in The Woodsman (2004) with Kevin Bacon.
Thus, Vivian Leigh produces a Kevin Bacon number of 3. Now for more variety, the site also allows you to calculate the steps between two actors. For example, this is the shortest path you can find between Carrot Top (Scott Thompson) and Ethel Barrymore:
1. Carrot Top was Chairman of the Board (1998) with Bill Erwin; 2. Bill Erwin was in The Color of Evening (1994) with Stuart Whitman; 3. Stuart Whitman was in Johnny Trouble (1957) with Ethel Barrymore.
The trick is to get this number as high as possible. So I thought I’d try an equally ridiculous couple like Natalie Portman and Shemp Howard, but even that didn’t fare any better:
1. Natalie Portman was in Zoolander (2001) with Ben Stiller; 2. Ben Stiller was in The Nutt House (1992) with Emil Sitka; 3. Emil Sitka was in Beware of Husbands (1956) with Shemp Howard.
The name Emil Sitka probably doesn’t mean much to most people, but he was a regular on many of the Three Stooges shorts, often sporting coke bottle glasses and a mustache, and probably best remembered as a little judge mouse. of peace that says: “Wait”. hands, lovebirds.” Next, let’s try Macaulay Culkin and Dooley Wilson (Sam, the pianist from Casablanca):
1. Macaulay Culkin was in Rocket Gibraltar (1988) with Burt Lancaster; 2. Burt Lancaster was in Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957) with Frank Faylen; 3. Frank Faylen was in Passage West (1951) with Dooley Wilson.
Hmm, 3 again. Can we now connect Pia Zadora with Rondo Hatton? Sure.
1. Pia Zadora was in Favorite Deadly Sins (1995) with Brian Keith; 2. Brian Keith was in Arrowhead (1953) with Milburn Stone; 3. Milburn Stone was in Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946) with Rondo Hatton.
For those of you under thirty-five, Pia Zadora is a richly married, angelic actress and singer who was the butt of many an industry joke during the ’80s, but got a few laughs when she landed a Grammy nomination. Milburn Stone, a name rarely heard in the same sentence as Pia Zadora, was best known as Doc on the long-running TV series Gunsmoke. Rondo Hatton started out as a normal-looking reporter for the Tampa Tribune but developed acromegaly, a pituitary disorder that causes the face and hands to grow out of control. Making the most of it, he pursued a second career as a character actor in horror films. Let’s see if we can better link Eddie Deezen (the obnoxious geek from Wargames) with Grace Kelly:
1. Eddie Deezen was in Grease (1978) with Michael Biehn; 2. Michael Biehn was in Blood of the Hunter (1995) with Edward Meeks; 3. Edward Meeks was in Rearranged (1982) with Grace Kelly.
As you can see, it’s very difficult to get numbers greater than three, regardless of the apparent disparity between the two actors you choose. Of course, you could boost your scores by selecting two obscure one-picture wonders that hardly anyone has ever heard of, but that wouldn’t be interesting. Ideally, you want two easily recognizable people who have taken very few photographs and who are as far apart chronologically as possible. A logical suspect could be Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie in the original Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, but turned down all subsequent movie offers and became a veterinarian. Let’s pair him with Albert Dieudonné, who played the title role in Abel Gance’s epic silent film Napoleon (1927), but appeared in only three more films:
1. Peter Ostrum was in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) with Roy Kinnear; 2. Roy Kinnear was in The Return of the Musketeers (1989) with Christopher Lee; 3. Christopher Lee was in Amere Victory (1957) with Joe Davray; 4. Joe Davray was in Madame Sans-Gene (1941) with Albert Dieudonné.
So there we are: 4. That Roy Kinnear really was around, until he died in 1988 in a fall from a horse. Because he’s been involved in a variety of pretty big movies, he invariably spoils them for Peter Ostrum and the other relatively unfamous Willie Wonka alumni (Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson, Michael Bollner, etc.). Christopher Lee is equally ubiquitous and, in fact, scores the lowest of ALL Hollywood actors in terms of this kind of interconnectedness.