New Google Feature
THIS is why the Internet was invented. Google has a new search feature so you can quickly find out how many degrees of separation any actor has from Kevin Bacon
It is hard to push the number much higher, for any reasonable value of "actor." For God sakes, Charlie Chaplin is a 2. I got a three with Humphrey Bogart and Butterfly McQueen. Not even sure how to get a four.
Erik Carlseen:
OK, now you have me thinking about Summer Glau covered in bacon. I won't get anything done for the rest of the day. You bastard.
September 14, 2012, 11:00 amBret Banfield:
To push the number higher you have to go back a few years ... like 1898.
'bacon number William Rufus Shafter'
William Rufus Shafter's Bacon number is 7William Rufus Shafter and Joseph Wheeler appeared in Surrender of General Toral.Joseph Wheeler and Russell A. Alger appeared in General Wheeler and Secretary of War Alger at Camp Wikoff.Russell A. Alger and William McKinley appeared in President McKinley Inauguration Footage.William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt appeared in President McKinley Inauguration.Theodore Roosevelt and Walter McGrail appeared in Womanhood, the Glory of the Nation.Walter McGrail and Patty McCormack appeared in Here Comes the Groom.Patty McCormack and Kevin Bacon appeared in Frost/Nixon.
September 14, 2012, 11:03 amTheHoff:
Pretty sure this is still being built up, as with most Google products when they get launched. I went to IMDB.com and looked for actors from independent films until I found one that successfully returned a 3 (many didn't return any value, despite being in the same movie), then looked through the cast list from their other films to try and find a 4. My first hope was through Elise Schaap from Bride Flight, but that proved to be a dead end. Next I stumbled upon Rawiri Paratene from Whale Rider, another 3. One of his movies that I'd never heard of was Rapa Nui, so picked an actor I'd also never heard of (George Henare) from that film to see if I could score my 4.....only to find out that George Henare has a 2 degree separation from Kevin Bacon because of his role in Rapa Nui, the same film Rawiri Paratene was in lol. I'm sure higher numbers will eventually be achievable as Google continues to expand their database, no telling how long that will take though.
September 14, 2012, 11:31 amTheHoff:
Pretty sure this is still being built up, as with most Google products when they get launched. I went to IMDB.com and looked for actors from the independent film Bride Flight until I found one that successfully returned a 3 (many didn't return any value, despite being in the same movie), then looked through the cast list from their other films to try and find a 4. My first hope was through Elise Schaap, the lead actress, but that proved to be a dead end. Next I stumbled upon Rawiri Paratene, another 3. One of his movies that I'd never heard of was Rapa Nui, so picked an actor I'd also never heard of (George Henare) from that film to see if I could score my 4.....only to find out that George Henare has a 2 degree separation from Kevin Bacon because of his role in Rapa Nui, the same film Rawiri Paratene was in lol. I'm sure higher numbers will eventually be achievable as Google continues to expand their database, no telling how long that will take though.
September 14, 2012, 11:34 amJens Fiederer:
This is a site I usually read for the intelligent posts, not the sexual fantasies.
But yum.
September 14, 2012, 11:50 amMingoV:
How do you know it was a sexual fantasy? It might be a cannibalistic fantasy. Maybe you subconsciously agree. (You did use the word 'yum.')
September 14, 2012, 2:08 pmobloodyhell:
Bumped into this Brit (Guardian UK) Editorial on it that seems of interest.
It mentions that
a) It doesn't actually provide an accurate Bacon Number, since it doesn't use IMDB's list of over 2.5 million actors, but "This is because they use information from their Public Knowledge graph, which is based on search data, not the IMDb [data]."
b) "What's more, said Reynolds, approximately 99% of the 2.5 million actors in the IMDb are four degrees or fewer from Bacon", so the "six degrees" is a reference to the networking concept more than the actual number it takes to get to KB.
(Side note: A friend and I, both major film buffs, played it one day and noted that about four was what we usually needed... So this bears that out. And we decided it was too easy: We went for "two degrees of connection", and had ANY two actor names, the goal being to identify at least one single actor they have in common... This can result in a much tougher game).
c) People like William Rufus Shafter, an army officer from the American Civil War, who appeared as himself in two short silent films from 1898, and is one of 27 people who are a rule-breaking eight degrees from Bacon. (Just their note, not to argue with Bret, though I think Bret miscounts so that 8 is right)
d) And the notion that Bacon can always be reached by six degrees or less as the most connected actor in Hollywood is resoundingly false. There are 196 other actors whose connection is greater than the six-degree mark, which is one reason why the site has Bacon currently ranked as the 444th most connected actor in Hollywood. He cedes top billing as the most connected to Sean Connery, Dennis Hopper and Christopher Lee who are regularly at the top on the site's thousand most-connected actors list
;-)
September 14, 2012, 3:38 pmobloodyhell:
Google's DB is already phenomenally large, as you'd know from the article I mention elsewhere in this thread -- 2.5 MILLION actors/personalities.
Also, their expert identifies how to get a high BN:
September 14, 2012, 3:44 pmReynolds categorized the few people who surpass the Bacon four degree threshold in his data set as "old, foreign and obscure".
Bob Koss:
Art Acord silent movie cowboy is a 4.
September 15, 2012, 6:46 amBob Koss:
These are mostly in pre-1950 western movies with no bacon number
Harry Carey silent movie
September 15, 2012, 7:26 amRay Bennett
Bill Cody
Jack Randall
Dr Cos:
This thing lies for its own convenience. Gene Barry has a higher number than two, as it says Gene Barry and Tim Robbins appeared in War of the Worlds. Yes, but two different movies with the same name.
September 15, 2012, 2:44 pm