Late Night Timewaster: Surprising Movie Links
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I mentioned the “Kevin Bacon Game” in a post below - the idea that every movie actor is connected to Kevin Bacon by a series of links through other actors. That got me thinking, which got me searching the Web, which got me wasting a lot of time coming up with intriguing but pointless stuff.
The University of Virginia computer-science department searched the entire IMDB database to get, apparently, every listed actor from every movie and TV show on record. First they calculated the “Bacon Number” of every actor, then they put up an interactive search tool so you can find the numbers and links of any actor known. Being CS geeks, they then generalized the tool to search links between any two actors in the database (if you’re not all that fascinated with Kevin Bacon, which I’m not). The results can be amusing.
For one thing, they found that, although Kevin Bacon does link to lots of actors, he is not, contrary to rumor, the Center of the Hollywood Universe. The average number of links required to get from Kevin Bacon to any actor in the entire IMDB database is 2.94 (surprisingly low, to me - in fact, there are barely 100 actors who are fewer than the proverbial “six degress of separation” from Bacon, but over half a million who are within three degrees). However, calculating the average link distance for all actors in the database (which must have been a massive computing task) shows that there are 1,221 other actors who are even closer, on average, to all their known colleagues. (That still puts Kevin Bacon well within the top 2/10ths of 1% of the database.)
Who is the Center of the Hollywood Universe? Rod Steiger - followed by Christopher Lee, Dennis Hopper, Donald Pleasance, Donald Sutherland, and a host of other famous people. Why Rod Steiger? I dunno. Apparently, being a “big star” is not necessary; being a familiar one is almost necessary, but even obscure actors who work on a lot of productions can score high (Vernon Dobtcheff, anyone? - he’s #38 on the all-time list, well above Faye Dunaway, Kirk Douglas, or Clint Eastwood).
Even more fascinating - if you play with it long enough you find some provocative links. I started searching out links between real-life people and the stars who played them. (It only works, of course, if the real-life figure is in the IMDB, but many are, due to appearing in documentaries.) Some funny ones:
Eva Peron has a Madonna (I) number of 3.
Eva Peron was in Prodiga, La (1945) with Juan Jose Miguez
Juan Jose Miguez was in Superagentes y titanes (1983) with Marcos Woinsky
Marcos Woinsky was in Evita (1996) with Madonna (I)
Knute Rockne has a Ronald (I) Reagan number of 3.
Knute Rockne was in This Is America: Sports’ Golden Age (1948) with Johnny Weissmuller
Johnny Weissmuller was in Phynx, The (1970) with Dick (I) Clark
Dick (I) Clark was in Young Doctors, The (1961) with Ronald (I) Reagan
Ronald (I) Reagan has a James Brolin number of 2.
Ronald (I) Reagan was in That Hagen Girl (1947) with Rory Calhoun
Rory Calhoun was in Bad Jim (1990) with James Brolin
Bill Clinton has a John Travolta number of 2.
Bill Clinton was in President Clinton: Final Days (2000) with Kevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey was in Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) with John Travolta
John (III) Glenn has a Ed (I) Harris number of 2.
John (III) Glenn was in Spaceflight (1985) (TV) with Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen was in Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2003) with Ed (I) Harris
Other games you can play - links between actors playing the same role:
George Lazenby has a Roger (I) Moore number of 2.
George Lazenby was in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) with Lois Maxwell
Lois Maxwell was in View to a Kill, A (1985) with Roger (I) MooreRoger (I) Moore has a Sean Connery number of 2.
Roger (I) Moore was in Spice World (1997) with Jason Flemyng
Jason Flemyng was in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The (2003) with Sean ConnerySean Connery has a Timothy Dalton number of 2.
Sean Connery was in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) with Marc (I) Lawrence
Marc (I) Lawrence was in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) with Timothy DaltonTimothy Dalton has a Pierce Brosnan number of 2.
Timothy Dalton was in Doctor and the Devils, The (1985) with Stephen (I) Rea
Stephen (I) Rea was in Evelyn (2002) with Pierce Brosnanand, interestingly . . .
Pierce Brosnan has a George Lazenby number of 2.
Pierce Brosnan was in Lawnmower Man, The (1992) with Michael (I) Gregory
Michael (I) Gregory was in Spider’s Web (2001) with George Lazenby
One thing you get from those results is how close all the links really are. Given that many actors work on dozens - even 100 or more - films, which each have dozens of credited actors, and given that all known movie actors fall within barely a 100-year timespan, it really doesn’t take much to find one or two links between any two. In fact, I’ve been unable to find any pairs of actors I can think of that are more than three links away, even when consciously trying for unlikely pairings. According to UVA, the least-connected actor in the entire IMDB - whom they won’t identify! - has an average link to any other actor of only 9 links, which seems surprisingly low. (Figure that the least-connected actor was probably some extra who appeared in only one silent move 100 years ago, the fact that the person can be connected to any actor in history in an average of 9 links seems remarkable.)
Ah, well. Meaningless, but absorbing.
Nancy (I) Davis [Nancy Reagan] has a John (I) Holmes number of 3.
Nancy (I) Davis was in You Can’t Hurry Love (1988) with Candie Evans
Candie Evans was in Princess Charming (1987) with Marc Wallice
Marc Wallice was in Ginger Lynn: The Movie (1988) with John (I) Holmes
The “six degrees” business didn’t start with the Kevin Bacon game. “Six degrees of separation” was actually a concept developed by the late Dr. Stanley Milgram (best known for what became known as the Milgram paradigm) to express the idea of a web of social connections surrounding every person such that almost any individual could be connected to almost any other individual in no more than six jumps.
For example, before he died I could have been connected to Leonid Brezhnev in just three jumps: I knew my Congressional representative, who knew the president, who had met with Brezhnev.
Comment 5/11/2004