Throughout the course of his professional acting career, Kevin Bacon has been in practically every Hollywood movie genre, from iconic cameos in movies like JFK to leading parts in classics like Footloose. His output was so prodigious that Bacon ultimately became the inspiration for his own game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, which led directly to his creation of the nonprofit organization SixDegrees.org.
Update July 11, 2023: This article has been updated with even more great Kevin Bacon performances because one can never have too much Bacon.
In addition to a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award, Bacon has won a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and other awards. He was ranked as one of the top actors who were never nominated for an Academy Award by The Guardian. Furthermore, Bacon was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003. Most recently, he guest-starred as himself in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Bacon makes everything better! These are some of Kevin Bacon's best movies you should watch.
20 He Said, She Said (1991)
He Said, She Said is an underrated romantic comedy film with a delightful battle between the sexes. Befitting its unique title, the same story is told twice but from the perspective of two main characters, Dan Hanson (Kevin Bacon) and Lorie Bryer (Elizabeth Perkins).
To be more specific, Dan and Lorie are Editors for the newspaper Baltimore Sun, and despite their opposing views on society, they fall in love with each other. After three years of being together, they retell the story to their friends from each other’s point of view, providing us with a fresh look at romance storytelling. If you've always wanted to see Kevin Bacon in a romantic role, this movie is right up your alley.
19 White Water Summer (1987)
White Water Summer is one of those films which show a lot of promise but fails to utilize its potential to the fullest, resulting in an entertaining flick that could have been so much more. In the movie, Kevin Bacon plays Vic, a man fascinated by the wilderness, and leads a group of four boys for a month-long trek into the Sierra mountain range, hoping to turn the lads into men.
However, once the boys get on his nerves, he forgets his main purpose and chooses the harsher way, unexpectedly affecting one of the younger boys, Alan (Sean Astin). If the movie’s premise doesn’t pique your interest, then perhaps you should give it a shot for the performances of Sean Astin and Kevin Bacon, which are certain to mesmerize you.
18 You Should Have Left (2020)
There is a fine line between horror movies and psychological horrors, and You Should Have Left, starring Kevin Bacon, tackles that with immaculate care. Furthermore, probably due to his experience as an actor for three decades, Bacon seamlessly carries the film with his terrific acting.
The story follows Theo, a former banker who is still haunted by the death of his ex-wife. One fine day, he rents a remote cabin in the peaceful Welsh countryside along with his new family, which includes a beautiful wife named Susanna (Amanda Seyfried) and an adorable daughter Ella (Avery Tillu Essex), to take a vacation before Susanna leaves for her next movie shoot. However, the place is not quite what it appears to be and is riddled with surprises.
17 Stir of Echoes (1999)
Stir of Echoes is a horror thriller film that can be better described as the right movie at the wrong time since it was released at the same time as Sixth Sense. Despite being highly entertaining from the beginning, the film didn't achieve the desired level of success, but that shouldn’t stop you from checking it out, considering how it is a horribly underrated classic.
The story revolves around Tom (Kevin Bacon), a father who is hypnotized by his sister-in-law and begins to see haunting visions related to a young girl's spirit, which leads him through a pile of mysteries that are solved with each encounter.
16 Hollow Man (2000)
Hollow Man is a prime example of how Kevin Bacon established himself as a versatile actor, as it shows his villainous side in the movie. Although the film was released two decades ago, its amazing special effects and CGI make it feel much more futuristic.
We follow Sebastian Caine, played by Kevin Bacon, an arrogant but brilliant scientist on a quest to create a serum that could turn people invisible with the help of a few other scientists, including his former girlfriend, Lina McKay (Elisabeth Shue). However, when he takes his obsession too far, it results in him getting turned invisible, and chaos ensues when he decides to utilize his power to terrorize others.
15 Cop Car (2015)
Cop Car tells the tale of two 10-year-old boys named Travis (James Freedson-Jackson) and Harrison (Hays Wellford), who come upon a seemingly abandoned police car while running away from home together. Despite hardly being able to peer through the windshield, they decide to have a joyride right away and drive onto the highway. The crooked Sheriff Kretzer (Bacon), the owner of the automobile, must act quickly to get it back before any other law enforcement officials become aware that it has been hijacked and discover what is hiding in the trunk.
Cop Car was co-written and directed by Jon Watts, and Bacon’s portrayal of the Sheriff is unique and believable once you understand why he’s so concerned. The film is a shockingly vicious visual masterpiece that more closely resembles vintage thrillers from the 1990s. It was the film that helped Watts land the job of directing the MCU Spider-Man trilogy.
14 Black Mass (2015)
Based on the 2001 book Black Mass: The Real Story of an Unholy Partnership Between the FBI and the Irish Mafia by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, the historical crime drama film Black Mass is about American gangster Whitey Bulger. Charles McGuire, the FBI agent in charge of the Boston field office and John Connolly's supervisor, is brilliantly portrayed by Bacon.
The picture is completed with a stellar ensemble cast that features Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Peter Sarsgaard, Dakota Johnson, and Corey Stoll. Black Mass received favorable reviews from reviewers and audiences alike on Rotten Tomatoes, which stated that the movie "spins a gripping yarn out of its fact-based story."
13 Tremors (1990)
In the 1990 comedy-drama Tremors, starring Bacon, Fred Ward, and Michael Gross, huge, underground worms have attacked a tiny desert hamlet. Val McKee, played by Bacon, is a neighborhood handyman who collaborates with a group of citizens fighting to survive a standoff with the strange monsters. Because the killer worms have a razor-sharp sensitivity to vibrations, things are made even more challenging because they must avoid contacting the ground.
Tremors' box office success led to the incredible seven-film series it is today. Despite the fact that Bacon only made an appearance in the first film, fans couldn't get enough of the cleverly calibrated combination of humor and jump scares, and he has expressed a desire to return to the franchise.
12 The Woodsman (2004)
The Woodsman received positive reviews at film festivals, and Bacon received plaudits for his performance. Also, he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Awards' Best Male Lead category. As a convicted child molester who returns to his hometown after years in prison, Bacon plays a difficult character. Actress Kyra Sedgewick, Bacon's wife, also appears in the movie.
11 Murder in the First (1995)
In Murder in the First, Bacon played Henri Young, an intellectually disabled man wrongfully accused of murder, who is sent to Alcatraz in the 1940s. For this portrayal, he received a Critic's Choice Award nomination and a SAG nod. He conveyed a great deal of emotion to a likable guy, whom you can't help but feel sorry for, as he endures months in the dungeon underneath the prison for a crime he didn't commit, making it still one of the actor's greatest dramatic performances.
10 National Lampoon's Animal House (1978)
National Lampoon’s Animal House, which made a splash in 1978 with its filthy collegiate comedy, popularized food battles and toga parties among college fraternities. The movie focuses on the misbehavior of the worst fraternity on campus and their conflicts with the college administration, which wants to close them down. As a conceited college student in a competing fraternity, Bacon had his first significant cinematic role.
9 Sleepers (1996)
Clint Eastwood's film Sleepers had eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Supporting Actress for Marcia Gay Harden. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins both won awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. The story revolves around three childhood friends who encounter strangers while they are young, with one of them being sexually assaulted.
The impact of this occurrence on their later lives is then covered in the movie. One of the three pals who has grown up to be a police officer is played by Bacon, alongside Brad Pitt and Jason Patric. This performance demonstrates the actor's ability to portray a really appalling human being when the part requires it.
8 Friday the 13th (1980)
This low-budget horror movie was undoubtedly inspired by Halloween, which had been a great box-office success two years before. Friday the 13th has since spawned innumerable sequels and spinoffs, just like Halloween did. One of the camp counselors, played by Bacon, unluckily succumbs to the films killer (not Jason Voorhees, he doesn't become the killer until the sequel). When Blumhouse's forthcoming The Toxic Avenger remake debuts, Bacon will return to his horror origins.
7 Apollo 13 (1995)
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The famous line "Houston, we have a problem" arguably best captures the narrative of Apollo 13's actual catastrophe. The movie Apollo 13 is an adaptation of the actual story of Jack Swigert (Bacon), Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks), and Fred Haise (Bill Paxton) and their misguided mission that turned into a fight for survival as they lost power and oxygen levels before they ever reached their goal.
Bacon’s portrayal of the brazen, youthful astronaut who faced death head-on and survived to tell the tale is further enhanced by his interactions with Hanks. The two actors make an excellent team. The film had an odd Oscar situation; heading into the awards season, it appeared to have the strongest chance of winning, but its director, Ron Howard, was inexplicably left off the slate of contenders for Best Director.
6 Frost/Nixon (2008)
13 years after acting in Apollo 13, Bacon rejoined with filmmaker Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon, which reimagines the historical 1977 encounter between U.S. President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and British talk-show personality David Frost (Michael Sheen) in the aftermath of the Watergate crisis. Throughout the movie, Bacon portrays Jack Brennan, a former U.S. Marine and Nixon's Chief of Staff after Watergate. With five Oscar nominations for the movie, it is one of the quintessential Kevin Bacon films you really have to see.
5 X-Men: First Class (2011)
X-Men: First Class (the fifth overall and fourth mainline entry in the X-Men movie franchise) is based on the X-Men characters that can be found in Marvel Comics. The film revived the struggling franchise by returning the characters to their roots as a newly assembled team of mutant superheroes. X-Men: First Class answers the question of what brought these heroes together in the first place.
The movie stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, and Jennifer Lawrence, who portray the X-Men. Bacon adopts a German accent to portray the supervillain Sebastian Shaw, a former Nazi, and mutant with the ability to absorb energy and convert it into his own power, who wants to rule the entire planet. The film was a box office success and a great chance for Bacon to showcase his versatility as an actor. His Sebastian Shaw stands as one of the best villains in the entire X-Men film series.
4 Footloose (1984)
After gaining notoriety in several movies, Bacon's role as Ren McCormack — a youngster who moves with his single mother from Chicago to a conservative, religious rural town in Footloose — was his actual breakthrough performance. The reverend of the town, who also happens to be the father of Ren's love interest, Ariel (John Lithgow), tries to uphold the town's stringent code of conduct and find his place in the tight-knit Oklahoma community (Lori Singer). A star performance, Bacon's depiction of a disobedient youngster who quietly flouts the law and brings some groove back to the boring town revealed the actor's impressive dance skills.
3 A Few Good Men (1992)
In A Few Good Men, Bacon has a leading role among legends like Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, and Demi Moore. Captain Jack Ross, played by Bacon, is an assigned lawyer for the Judge Advocate Division entrusted with bringing charges against two marine cadets suspected of torturing a fellow officer to death. Bacon spars verbally with Cruise's Daniel Kaffee, a JAG attorney who is defending the accused and trying to get the facts about what exactly happened to cause the killing. Bacon had the chance to collaborate with some of Hollywood's greatest actors during some fantastic and unforgettable courtroom moments, which gave us some unforgettable statements for the masterfully crafted drama.
2 Mystic River (2003)
In Clint Eastwood's critically praised movie Mystic River, Bacon played Detective Sean Devine, a significant member of a fantastic ensemble cast. This heartbreaking tale about a little child going missing in Massachusetts also has Sean Penn and Tim Robbins as the main characters. The missing girl is the off-balance ex-con Jimmy Markum's (Penn) daughter, who was also a childhood companion of Bacon's character.
As the officer in this grim criminal thriller who is personally concerned about discovering what happened to the lost girl, Bacon was nominated for several Best Ensemble Awards alongside the rest of the main ensemble. In Mystic River, Bacon displays some of his enormous range as an actor.
1 JFK (1991)
JFK was a very contentious movie that was accused of treating rumors about potential assassination plots for President John F. Kennedy as reality while receiving eight Oscar nominations, including one for Best Picture. Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner, is a Louisiana district attorney who seeks to bring charges against those he believes helped Lee Harvey Oswald kill JFK. One of the persons Costner thinks is responsible for the murder is Clay Shaw, and Bacon portrays a male hustler who gives him information about him. Despite the controversy surrounding the film, it is one of Bacon’s greatest performances.