Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Calculator

Explore the famous “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” game. Enter two actors and see how many movie steps connect them, along with the full chain of films.

Find a Bacon Number

Leave blank to connect to Kevin Bacon.

Note: This demo uses a curated mini movie graph for educational purposes. It does not query IMDb or external databases in real time.

What is the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon?

The “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” is a pop‑culture game based on the idea that any actor can be connected to Kevin Bacon through six or fewer steps, where each step is a shared movie appearance.

Mathematically, this is a shortest path problem on a graph:

  • Each node is an actor.
  • Each edge connects two actors who appeared in the same film.
  • The Bacon Number is the length of the shortest path between an actor and Kevin Bacon.

How this calculator works (under the hood)

For privacy and speed, the calculator runs entirely in your browser using a small, hand‑built movie graph featuring Kevin Bacon and a selection of well‑known actors and films.

Algorithm (Breadth‑First Search, BFS)

  1. Start from the “From actor” node.
  2. Explore all co‑stars (neighbors) level by level.
  3. Stop when we reach the “To actor”.
  4. The number of edges in this shortest path is the Bacon Number.

BFS guarantees the shortest chain of movies in an unweighted graph, which is exactly what we need for Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Interpreting your results

  • Bacon Number 0: the actor is Kevin Bacon.
  • Bacon Number 1: they appeared in a film directly with Kevin Bacon.
  • Bacon Number 2: they worked with someone who worked with Kevin Bacon, and so on.

Limitations and data sources

This tool is an educational approximation, not a full filmography search engine:

  • It uses a local demo dataset of actors and movies embedded in the page.
  • It does not call IMDb, Wikipedia, or any external API.
  • If an actor or movie is missing from the dataset, the calculator may report that no path was found.

For authoritative, up‑to‑date filmographies, always refer to trusted databases such as IMDb or official film resources.

FAQ

Is Kevin Bacon really at the center of Hollywood?

Not literally, but he is very well connected. The game became popular in the 1990s because Bacon had appeared in a wide variety of films with many different co‑stars, making him a convenient “hub” in the actor network.

Can I use this calculator with any actor in the world?

You can type any name, but the calculator can only compute paths between actors that exist in its internal dataset. If it can’t find either actor, it will let you know.

Why is my Bacon Number different from other sites?

Different tools may use different datasets and rules (e.g., including TV shows, cameos, or uncredited roles). This demo focuses on a small set of well‑known films, so its results are illustrative rather than definitive.

Is this affiliated with Kevin Bacon or “SixDegrees.org”?

No. This is an independent educational calculator inspired by the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon concept. For Kevin Bacon’s official charitable work, visit SixDegrees.org.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon – Quick FAQ