Kevin Bacon co-stars with Meg Ryan in the film "In The Cut." The movie opened nationwide Friday. Bacon also starred in Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River," which opened Oct. 15.
Early years: Bacon was born July 8, 1958, in Philadelphia. He left home at age 17 to attend Manning Street Actor's Theatre and The Circle in the Square Theater School in New York City.
Career: Bacon started his acting career off-Broadway in "Forty Deuce." He made it to Broadway in 1983 in the "Slab Boys," co-starring Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. Bacon's television debut came as a brief stint on "Guiding Light." He then tried his hand at movies in "National Lampoon's Animal House" in 1978. Bacon gained true stardom for 1984's classic "Footloose" as a city boy who incites a small town to dance. In the 1990s he starred in many films, including "JFK" (1991), "A Few Good Men" (1992) and "The River Wild" (1995), for which he won a Golden Globe nomination.
In 1995 he joined his brother, Michael, to form The Bacon Brothers, a blues band. To date, they have released three albums to mixed reviews. His acting career flourished with "Stir of Echoes" (1999), "My Dog Skip" (2000) and "Hollowman" (2000).
Bacon is the subject of a pop-culture phenomenon called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon," in which all Hollywood actors can supposedly be linked to Bacon through movie appearances and acquaintances.
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Family: Bacon married actress Kyra Sedgwick in 1988. They have two children and live in Manhattan.
In his words: "If there's one thing I've tried to work for my whole life, it's been to try to play different kinds of guys and not kind of do the same thing ever."
Web link: www.biography.com
Compiled by Heather Leinen
Sources: Allstarz.org, E!online.com, Romanticemovies.about.com
