Kevin Bacon’s Best Roles
National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978)
Bacon was a 19-year-old acting school student when he got cast as fraternity pledge Chip Diller in the raucous comedy. Chip was a prudish outcast; Bacon admits that he too didn’t quite fit in with boisterous costars John Belushi and Bruce McGill on the Oregon set.
Friday the 13th (1980)
Bloody fun! The low-budget slasher film turned into a box-office hit that led to about a dozen sequels and spin-offs. Bacon plays one of the camp counselors who inevitably falls victim to the slasher in a hockey mask, Jason Voorhees.
Diner (1982)
He’s one of five Baltimore friends navigating the transition into adulthood in this bittersweet comedy set in the late 1950s. Bacon recently reunited with co-stars Tim Daly, Paul Reiser and Steve Guttenberg to mark the film’s 40th anniversary. “It was awesome,” he says.
Footloose (1984)
“It’s probably the number one film fans want to talk to me about,” says Bacon of this Gen X favorite with a classic soundtrack. Indeed, he became a breakout star as an uprooted city teen who petitions a small town to lift its no-dance rule. Lose your blues—and everybody cut footloose!
Tremors (1990)
In this cult horror classic, he and Fred Ward are handymen leading the battle against giant, murderous killer worms. They were worms, yes, but this movie had “legs,” spawning six sequels. Alas, Bacon wasn’t in any of them.
JFK (1991)
Oliver Stone’s controversial drama about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy garnered eight Oscar nominations. Bacon played against type as a male prostitute who provides a district attorney (Kevin Costner) with crucial information.
A Few Good Men (1992)
Can you handle the truth about this iconic courtroom drama? Tom Cruise is the lawyer defending two Marines charged with murder; Bacon is the cocky prosecuting attorney assigned to the case. “He’s essentially a good Marine,” he says of his character.
The River Wild (1994)
He and co-star John C. Reilly terrorize Meryl Streep and her family during a whitewater rafting trip—and Bacon got a Golden Globe nod for the trouble. Based on his sinister work here, he jokes that “there could be a Six Degrees of actors I’ve killed!”
Apollo 13 (1995)
Houston, we’ve got no problem! Surely, you recall that Bacon played real-life astronaut Jack Swigert in this intense smash from director Ron Howard about the ill-fated moon mission of the same name.
Mystic River (2003)
Bacon says he’s “very proud” of his work in this Clint Eastwood–directed drama, in which three Boston friends try to cope with a traumatic incident from their childhood. Co-stars Sean Penn and Tim Robbins picked up Oscars for their roles.
Taking Chance (2009)
Bacon won a Golden Globe and scored his first and only Emmy nomination for his performance in this HBO movie, about a Marine who volunteers to escort the body of a young soldier killed in battle back to his hometown.
X-Men: First Class (2011)
That’s Bacon doing a German accent to portray supervillain Sebastian Shaw—a mutant who can absorb energy and transform it into his own strength—in this snappy comic book adaptation.
The Following (2013–15)
His first network television role? As a tormented former FBI agent recruited to track down his longtime nemesis, a notorious serial killer (James Purefoy) who just escaped from death row. The Fox thriller aired for three seasons.
City on a Hill (2019– )
Though Bacon has played Boston natives and federal agents in the past, he says that the fast-talking, hard-living, vice-prone Jackie Rohr “is a different kind of character.” (And that’s not just because of the mustache.)
Space Oddity (2022)
This quirky indie—directed by wife Kyra Sedgwick—recently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. “It’s about a young man who wants to take a one-way trip to Mars,” Bacon explains. “It’s funny, romantic and has a serious message about climate change.” Next: Kevin Bacon Braves NYC Subway on Hunt for His 1986 Movie Poster
