Kevin Bacon's Real Name: Kevin Norwood Bacon

Quick answer: Kevin Bacon's full name is Kevin Norwood Bacon. He was born on July 8, 1958, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became a star with Footloose (1984), and his long filmography inspired the parlor game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." He also plays in the Bacon Brothers band with his brother Michael (Britannica; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Britannica gives his name in full as Kevin Norwood Bacon. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Bacon, Kevin, 1958-." He shares his middle name with his father, Edmund Norwood Bacon, a prominent city planner and architect who was called "The Father of Modern Philadelphia." His mother, Ruth Hilda Holmes, was a teacher and political activist. Kevin was the youngest of six children.

Britannica says he knew early that he wanted to act. In high school he took part in the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts and performed at Philadelphia's Manning Street Actor's Theatre. After graduating he moved to New York to study at the Circle in the Square Theatre School.

Career highlights

Director John Landis cast the 18-year-old Bacon as a smug ROTC cadet in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). The breakthrough he hoped for did not follow, so he worked in soap operas and theater. He won a 1982 Obie Award for Forty Deuce and Poor Little Lambs. That same year Barry Levinson's Diner helped launch his career.

Footloose (1984) made him famous as Ren McCormack, a dance-loving teen in a town that bans dancing. Bacon later shifted toward complex supporting roles in JFK (1991) and A Few Good Men (1992). He played a thief menacing Meryl Streep's character in The River Wild (1994), and in 1995 he starred in Murder in the First and played astronaut Jack Swigert in Apollo 13. Mystic River (2003), The Woodsman (2004), and HBO's Taking Chance (2009) followed, the last winning him a Golden Globe and a SAG Award. He played villain Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class (2011).

Bacon met actress Kyra Sedgwick on the set of Lemon Sky, and they married in 1988. They have two children and have often worked together. He made his directing debut with Loverboy (2005), which starred Sedgwick.

Name notes for searchers

Kevin Bacon is his real name, not a stage name. Britannica says the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game was created by students at Albright College in Pennsylvania in 1994. The goal is to connect any actor to Bacon through shared costars in six films or fewer. Learn more about his Apollo 13 costar on our Tom Hanks real name page, and about his River Wild costar on our Meryl Streep page.