Kevin Bacon Biography Quotes 36 Report mistakes

Early Life and Family
Kevin Norwood Bacon was born on July 8, 1958, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the youngest of six children. His father, Edmund Norwood Bacon, was a renowned urban planner and longtime executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, known for the influential book Design of Cities. His mother, Ruth Hilda Holmes, was a teacher and activist who encouraged civic engagement and the arts. Growing up in a household that balanced public service and creativity, Bacon developed an early interest in performing. The family environment, coupled with the visibility of his father in public life, instilled in him both confidence and a sense of responsibility to community.

Training and Stage Beginnings
Bacon received a scholarship at age 16 to attend the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, an intensive program that affirmed his commitment to acting. Soon after, he moved to New York City to pursue theater, studying at the Circle in the Square Theatre School and working in off-Broadway productions. He took early roles on television, including the soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Guiding Light, while continuing to develop on stage. Appearances in plays such as Forty-Deuce and the Broadway production of The Slab Boys, alongside peers like Sean Penn and Val Kilmer, helped him sharpen his craft and gain attention from film directors.

Breakthrough on Screen
Kevin Bacon made his feature debut in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). His breakthrough arrived with Barry Levinson's ensemble drama Diner (1982), where his lively turn signaled a charismatic screen presence. Two years later he became a pop-culture fixture with Footloose (1984), playing Ren McCormack, a role that demanded equal parts dramatic intensity and physicality. The film's success established him as a leading man and a versatile performer capable of anchoring a movie while sharing the spotlight with actors such as John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, and Lori Singer.

1990s: Range and Recognition
Bacon's 1990s output showcased range across genres. He led the cult-favorite creature feature Tremors (1990) opposite Fred Ward and joined the ensemble of Flatliners (1990). He took on complex supporting roles in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991) and Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992), working alongside Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson. His performance as a menacing antagonist in The River Wild (1994) opposite Meryl Streep earned him major awards attention, and he brought quiet authority to Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995) with Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Ed Harris. In Sleepers (1996), he portrayed a brutal guard, underscoring his willingness to inhabit morally difficult parts.

2000s: Character-Driven Work
In Hollow Man (2000) he explored psychological sci-fi as a scientist whose invisibility unleashes darker impulses. He reunited with director Clint Eastwood and an acclaimed ensemble for Mystic River (2003), playing a Boston detective amid grief and loyalty. The Woodsman (2004), opposite his wife Kyra Sedgwick and directed by Nicole Kassell, marked one of his most daring roles; his restrained, empathetic performance drew widespread critical praise. He also led the vigilante thriller Death Sentence (2007), continuing a pattern of shifting between studio films and challenging independent projects.

Prestige Television and Later Films
Bacon's television work further expanded his reputation. In the HBO film Taking Chance (2009), he portrayed Marine officer Michael Strobl, a role that earned him a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, along with an Emmy nomination. He headlined the Fox series The Following (2013-2015) as former FBI agent Ryan Hardy, and later starred in the Amazon series I Love Dick (2016-2017) and the Showtime drama City on a Hill (2019-2022) opposite Aldis Hodge. On the film side, he joined the X-Men franchise in X-Men: First Class (2011) as Sebastian Shaw and continued to appear in both mainstream and independent features, balancing familiar genre fare with character-centered stories.

Music: The Bacon Brothers
Beyond acting, Bacon is an active musician. With his older brother Michael Bacon, an Emmy-winning composer, he formed The Bacon Brothers, a roots-rock duo that has recorded multiple albums and toured widely. Their partnership underscores the family's artistic thread and Kevin Bacon's comfort with live performance, songwriting, and collaboration outside the screen.

Philanthropy and Cultural Impact
The pop-culture concept Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, created in the mid-1990s by a trio of college students, playfully mapped how nearly any actor is connected to him. Bacon ultimately embraced the phenomenon as a tool for good, launching SixDegrees.org in 2007 to connect people and celebrities with charitable causes. The idea of a "Bacon number" entered the broader vocabulary of network theory and entertainment trivia, turning a joke into a discussion about connectedness. Bacon has also supported arts education and a range of humanitarian initiatives, reflecting values rooted in his parents' example of public engagement.

Personal Life
Kevin Bacon married actor Kyra Sedgwick in 1988 after meeting during a production of Lanford Wilson's Lemon Sky. They have two children, Travis, a musician and composer, and Sosie, an actor. Sedgwick's steady success on television and film has paralleled Bacon's own, and their professional collaborations have included The Woodsman and other projects. They have spoken publicly about the importance of family, perspective, and resilience, including weathering financial setbacks associated with the Bernie Madoff fraud, and have maintained a reputation as one of Hollywood's most enduring partnerships.

Craft and Reputation
Bacon is known for an unshowy, precise approach to character, often bringing intensity without sacrificing nuance. He moves readily between leading roles and ensembles, between sympathetic figures and morally ambiguous antagonists. Directors such as Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, and Clint Eastwood have cast him in crucial roles that support the narrative fabric while revealing his range. Colleagues frequently cite his professionalism and appetite for collaboration, traits that have sustained his long career.

Legacy
Over decades of film, television, stage, and music, Kevin Bacon has become a model of longevity and adaptability. He helped define iconic 1980s cinema with Footloose, deepened his portfolio with complex 1990s dramas, found new avenues in 2000s prestige television, and sustained an ongoing dialogue with audiences through music and philanthropy. The constellation of people around him - from his parents Edmund Bacon and Ruth Hilda Holmes, to his brother Michael, to his wife Kyra Sedgwick and their children Travis and Sosie, and to frequent collaborators across film and television - illustrates a career grounded in family, craft, and community. His work continues to bridge popular entertainment and substantive storytelling, and the cultural shorthand of "six degrees" ensures that his name remains synonymous with the connective tissue of modern screen acting.

Our collection contains 36 quotes who is written by Kevin, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Music - Leadership - Deep - Parenting.

Other people realated to Kevin: Shawn Ashmore (Actor), Marcia Gay Harden (Actress), Atom Egoyan (Director), Willie Morris (Writer), Ryan Sypek (Actor), Billy Crudup (Actor), Carrie Snodgress (Actress), J. T. Walsh (Actor), Evan Rachel Wood (Actress), Brad Renfro (Actor)

• Wikipedia