What is my Bacon number?? (very obscure "actor")
January 16, 2014 9:54 PM   Subscribe

OMG I have a Bacon number! I think. What is it - how do I find it? Difficulty: I am very obscure and not actually in the movie industry.

Back in about 1999-2000, I volunteered to act in a movie for a friend-of-a-friend. There were cameras, and makeup, and everything, and apparently the end result sucked and everyone forgot about it (including me). BUT, I guess the director held on to all the footage and re-edited and released a cut of the film in 2004! And put clips on Youtube, and listed whatever info is required on IMDB - the whole 9 yards.

My question is - given that I am now listed on IMDB, is there any formulaic way I can obtain my "Bacon number," or my degrees-of-separation from any other actor? I already tried googling "bacon number [name]," and nothing came up; either they don't use IMDB, or they use some subset of data.

Are there any other alternatives? Just from clicking the bios of a few other people in this movie, I am certain that they connect to other films so it is not a complete dead end.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault to Media & Arts (11 answers total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Oracle of Bacon
posted by RobotHero at 9:59 PM on January 16, 2014 [19 favorites]


Google a name and "bacon number" and Google will tell you the answer. Example
posted by smoq at 1:53 AM on January 17, 2014


Try to connect someone in the movie to a bigger name actor with 1 degree of separation, then go to the Oracle of Bacon with the Oracle of Bacon with the bigger name actor. Then you are the bigger name actor +2.
posted by Flood at 4:46 AM on January 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


What is your name and what movie is it?
posted by ryanrs at 5:01 AM on January 17, 2014


If you've ever co-authored an academic paper, you may be one of the few people with an Erdős–Bacon number.
posted by Rock Steady at 6:29 AM on January 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


If you expand the Oracle Of Bacon options to include documentaries, you get a lot more connections.

Mine is 3!
posted by The Whelk at 7:53 AM on January 17, 2014


I also volunteered on a movie in 1999 that ended up sucking and was forgotten about (I'm sure that happens a lot), then the director did a re-edit and made it into a shorter film (or maybe a couple of shorts) in 2004. I wonder if it was the same movie?

Does the name Sultan Biggs mean anything to you?
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 8:18 AM on January 17, 2014


My Erdős–Bacon number was 9 by the time I was 19 and I haven't really done anything else of value since then.

For anyone curious, you can calculate your Erdős number here.
posted by telegraph at 8:26 AM on January 17, 2014


Mod note: Folks, please keep this to answering the question rather than kibbitzing about your own Bacon or Erdos numbers.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:12 PM on January 17, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks to RobotHero - that does the trick. I think I have even visited the Oracle of Bacon before, but had obviously forgotten about it.

Google a name and "bacon number" and Google will tell you the answer.

Actually I tried that and it didn't work; I think Google's dataset is incomplete or something.

Thanks again, all.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:29 PM on January 17, 2014


Response by poster: Does the name Sultan Biggs mean anything to you?

Nope, sorry.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 3:30 PM on January 17, 2014


« Older Pet Owners Have You Ever Used Certifect To Treat...   |   Who is this artist? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.