6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

So I have a new freaky craze for the 6 degrees game - otherwise known as 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Andy introduced me to this, and I'll fill you in if you're not already a player. The game started out with the premise that you can connect Kevin Bacon to any other actor through six movies or less. For example:

Kevin Bacon and, we'll say Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman was in Twister with Bill Paxton, who was in Apollo 13 with Kevin Bacon.

Now that was an easy one, but they get fun. Just yesterday, some friends and I connected Tom Hanks and Kirk Douglas in merely four, through a strange connection. Some rules are that you cannot use made-for-TV movies (even though I use Merlin quite frequently, considering its laundry list of big name actors: Sam Neil, Martin Short, Helena Bonham Carter, and James Earl Jones), and that you can only use actors and actresses. No directors or key grips or gaffers. No makeup artists. Cameos are allowed, but it's just bad form to overuse a cameo, such as Bruce Willis in Ocean's 12. But you can still use it some. Oh, and you can use voice actors and parts as well.

A couple good hints are as follows:

1. The connection between Tom Hanks and Mel Gibson is Barry Pepper.

2. The "inconceivable" guy from The Princess Bride is Wallace Shawn.

3. The guy who looks like Groucho Marx is Eugene Levy.

4. Bruce Willis is in everything.

And I'm so excited about the Kirk Douglas/Tom Hanks thing, that I have to tell you.

Kirk Douglas was in War Wagon with John Wayne, who was in The Shootist with Ron Howard. Ron Howard was in A Beautiful Mind with Ed Harris, who was in Apollo 13 with Tom Hanks.

Anyways, it's not of much value, except in training your mental file-recovery system. I suppose that's quite a bit of value. It will make you realize what you pay attention to in movies, as well. Keep in mind, this game will lose you hours of your life on imdb.com trying to figure out the ones that stump you.