Editing Kevin Bacon (section)

== Film Career ==

Bacon's breakthrough came with "Diner" (1982) and was solidified by "Footloose" (1984), the dance film that made him a teen idol though he was already in his mid-twenties. The role's requirements—dancing he had to learn for the film—demonstrated the work ethic that subsequent roles would continue displaying. His willingness to embrace the teen idol status that "Footloose" provided, without being limited by it, showed career intelligence that would serve him throughout his work.<ref name="stated"/>

His subsequent career avoided the typecasting that "Footloose" success might have encouraged, roles in films including "JFK" (1991), "A Few Good Men" (1992), "Apollo 13" (1995), and "Mystic River" (2003) demonstrating range that teen idol beginnings did not predict. His comfort with both heroic and villainous roles—the latter including memorable turns in "Sleepers" (1996) and "The Woodsman" (2004)—showed willingness to challenge audience expectations that some actors avoid.<ref name="martin"/>

The "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game, which emerged from a late-night television appearance and academic study in the 1990s, illustrated his career's scope by demonstrating that most Hollywood actors could be linked to him within six steps. His embrace of the phenomenon rather than resistance to it demonstrated the humor and self-awareness that his public persona embodied. His Philadelphia origins, distant by this point in a Los Angeles-based career, nonetheless remained part of biographical identity that interviews periodically explored.<ref name="stated"/>