Six Degrees of Everybody

Many of you have perhaps heard of the movie game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. It was invented several years ago. The concept is simple: name an actor and within six names and films these actors have appeared in, you can get to Kevin Bacon.

For example: let’s take a relatively new star like Jennifer Lawrence. Well, that’s easy because they were in X-Men: First Class together. OK, how about someone like Gene Wilder? Wilder was in Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty, who was in Reds with Jack Nicholson, who was in A Few Good Men with Kevin Bacon. Only two names in between.

Point is – for people like me (total movie nerd), the Kevin Bacon game isn’t too challenging. He’s worked with a lot of actors – Cruise, Nicholson, DeNiro, Pitt, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Lemmon, Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, Meg Ryan, Gary Oldman, Demi Moore, Bill Murray, Matt Dillon, Steve Martin, John Candy, just to name a few.

So, a few years ago – my cousin and I invented a new movie game. Name two actors. In some cases – more like, two people that have been in movies or a movie (Hulk Hogan or Howard Stern or David Letterman aren’t exactly who you immediately think of when you think “thespian”). And like the Bacon game, you have to connect them with only six actors in between. We would drive each other nuts trying to stump each other and rarely did.

The rules are simple: no cheating. No using imdb.com or looking at their wikipedia filmography. It has to be off the top of your head.

If you’re a movie fanatic, it’s fun and even more fun to get people to try and stump me. I’ll give you a good example that might be played:

Connect John Wayne to Eminem…

And it goes like this:

John Wayne was in True Grit with Robert Duvall (1)

Robert Duvall was in The Godfather with Al Pacino (2)

Al Pacino was in Glengarry Glen Ross with Alec Baldwin (3)

Alec Baldwin was in The Getaway with Kim Basinger (4)

Kim Basinger was in 8 Mile with Eminem.

Four names! Think I’m cheating? Let’s do it again using all different actors and movies…

John Wayne was in The Shootist with Lauren Bacall (1)

Lauren Bacall was in Misery with Kathy Bates (2)

Kathy Bates was in The Waterboy with Adam Sandler (3)

Adam Sandler was in Funny People with Eminem.

Three names! I would certainly encourage discussion and comments on this newborn blog of mine, so feel free to challenge me should you wish. If you stump me, you get a free “The Todd Thatcher Movie Blog” t-shirt and beer cozy.