Chances are, late some drunken Saturday night, you've found yourself playing the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with a group of friends. Or, if you're a particularly sad individual, by yourself, trying to train your cat to fact check on IMDb.com. If you're unfamiliar with it, the game is based on the "six degrees of separation" theory that everyone can be connected to anyone else in the world by a maximum of six steps - a "friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend," as it were. In Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, players try to tie any actor or actress to the ubiquitous Kevin Bacon by citing a movie in which they appeared with someone who was in a movie with someone who was in a movie with someone who was in movie with Bacon - with no more than six links. According to the Oracle of Bacon, there are over 2 MILLION actors who can be connected to Kevin Bacon in this way. Here are some you might find quite surprising.
15 Donald Trump
Before he became the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump was already a public celebrity known for his business dealings and for his reality TV series The Apprentice. But he also made quite a few cameo appearances in movies from the late '80s to the early '00s, almost always as himself.
The Connection:
Across the Sea of Time (1995): Trump appears in this IMAX movie about the growth of New York City, as told through the eyes of (ironically, given his immigration stance and purported ties to Russia) a Russian immigrant who arrives in the US to trace his ancestor's journey decades earlier. Also in the film is an actor named Victor Steinbach, who plays a pilot.
The Big Picture (1989): Steinbach also had a role in this '80s comedy about a recent film-school graduate who finds out that Hollywood isn't all it's cracked up to be. That grad is played by none other than Kevin Bacon.
14 Barack Obama
Donald Trump isn't the only US President who can be connected to Kevin Bacon. His predecessor, Barack Obama, also is "Bacon adjacent," although he appears to be much less fond of making movie cameos than Trump.
The Connection:
Sand and Sorrow (2007): Obama appears in this documentary about the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is narrated (and produced) by George Clooney.
Leatherheads (2008): Clooney stars in (and directs) this romantic comedy revolving around the leather-helmeted players in a 1920s professional football league. Funnyman Mike O'Malley has a featured role.
R.I.P.D. (2013): O'Malley appears in this box office bomb starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as cops from the afterlife rounding up souls unwilling to move on - sort of like Men in Black with ghosts. The movie's villain is played by...Kevin Bacon.
13 Adolf Hitler
Believe it or not, notorious Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has ties to Kevin Bacon, although it takes a longer-than-normal four steps to get there.
The Connection:
Theresienstadt (1944): Hitler makes an appearance in this film, a Nazi propaganda short designed to convince the rest of the world that concentration camps were happy-go-lucky places where prisoners were treated well. Kurt Gerron not only directs the film, but he also acts in it. (Being Jewish, however, he was killed upon completion of filming.)
Man braucht kein Geld (1932): Before his death, Gerron was a prolific filmmaker and actor in Germany, appearing in this comedy featuring a teenage Hedy Lamarr about a rich family trying to regain its wealth.
Love of Three Queens (1954): Lamarr stars in this drama in which she plays three queens in three different time periods. Italian actor Cesare Danova also appears.
Animal House (1978): Danova plays the mayor in this classic frat house comedy featuring...Kevin Bacon.
12 Jared Fogle
Kevin Bacon probably doesn't want to be associated with disgraced Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, but like it or not, Fogle has a "Bacon number" of 2; meaning it takes only two connections to tie him and Kevin Bacon together.
The Connection:
Jack and Jill (2011): Fogle makes a cameo as himself in this comedic abomination in which Adam Sandler plays male and female twins, somehow making a terrible movie all the more worse. An actress named Yvette Rachelle had a small, uncredited part in the film.
Frost/Nixon (2008): Rachelle has another small roll - this time as a Playboy bunny - in what is basically the opposite of Jack and Jill, a dramatic portrayal of the interviews conducted by talk show host David Frost and President Richard Nixon after he resigned following the Watergate scandal. The role of Jack Brennan, a real-life aide to Nixon, was played by...yup, Kevin Bacon.
11 Kanye West
Kanye West is known more as a rapper than as an actor. Heck, he's known more as a reality TV star than as an actor. But he did "act" (as it were) in at least one memorable film scene.
The Connection:
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013): In this Will Ferrell sequel, West plays a member of the MTV News crew in the classic newscaster rumble scene, battling other rival news teams in a wild throw down that features cameos by celebs like Will Smith, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Liam Neeson, and Jim Carrey. (West ends up blown to bits by a ray gun.) David Koechner plays Ferrell's teammate, cowboy sportscaster Champ.
My One and Only (2009): Koechner has a role in this 1950s period comedy about a woman (Renée Zellweger) who leaves her cheating husband and takes her kids across country in search of a man to take care of them. Koechner is one of the eligible men, and the philandering husband is played by...Kevin Bacon.
10 Caitlyn Jenner
When she was known as Bruce, Caitlyn Jenner was a household name long before the Kardashians were a thing. But how does she relate to Kevin Bacon?
The Connection:
Can't Stop the Music (1980): Riding high off his Gold medal performance at the 1976 Olympics, Bruce Jenner made his film debut in this notoriously bad musical comedy telling the semi-biographical tale of the rise of the disco group the Village People. In it, Jenner plays a naïve lawyer from St. Louis who's thrown into the New York club music scene where the group gets its start. Steve Guttenberg plays a songwriter who writes the Village People's songs.
Diner (1982): Before Guttenberg became known for the Police Academy films, he co-starred in Barry Levinson's Oscar-nominted drama as one of a group of longtime friends, alongside future stars like Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Paul Reiser, Tim Daly, Ellen Barkin and...Kevin Bacon.
9 Lassie
Lassie - America's favorite four-legged canine aside from Scooby Doo, Snoopy, and Brian from Family Guy. She might be man's best friend, but can she find a way to intersect with Kevin Bacon's human filmography?
The Connection:
Lassie Come Home (1943): Fun fact: Female collie "Lassie" was actually originally a male dog named Pal. He (and his innate ability to sense when his owner had fallen down a well) starred in seven Lassie movies in the 1940s and 1950s, including this debut film, featuring a teenage Roddy McDowall as a poor boy whose parents sell his dog - only to have the dog find its way back home from hundreds of miles away.
The Big Picture (1989): McDowall plays a judge in this comedy, which, as previously mentioned, stars one Kevin Bacon - extra crispy!
8 Michael Jackson
The King of Pop was a vegetarian, so how can he relate to Bacon? Well, as we've seen, almost EVERYONE can relate to Bacon.
The Connection:
Moonwalker (1988): In Michael Jackson's vanity project - basically, a loosely tied together series of music videos, concert footage, short films and biographical information -Joe Pesci plays a ridiculous villain named Mr. Big, clad in high heels and sporting a weirdly erect ponytail. (Jackson defeats him by basically turning into a Transformer and blowing him up before he has a chance to use his death ray.)
JFK (1991): In Oliver Stone's historical narrative, Pesci plays real-life pilot David Ferrie, whom New Orleans District Attorney, Jim Garrison (played here by Kevin Coster) suspected was involved with the Kennedy assassination. A (fictional) witness that can help link Ferrie to shooter Lee Harvey Oswald is Willie O'Keefe, played by...Kevin Bacon.
7 Nelson Mandela
Nobel Peace Prize winner and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years in prison for his opposition of the segregationist Apartheid system in his homeland, so you wouldn't think he'd have enough opportunity to be connected to Kevin Bacon, but you'd be wrong!
The Connection:
Malcolm X (1992): Just a couple of years after his release from prison, Mandela had a small role in Spike Lee's biographical film, playing a South African teacher in an epilogue that bridges Malcolm X's life with Mandela's release. In the film, Don Hewitt, known primarily as a stuntman, has a bit part as a "Black Legion Member."
Sleepers (1996): Hewitt has a slightly larger role (well, his character at least has a name) in this star-studded drama featuring Brad Pitt, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Minnie Driver, and Jason Patric. Pitt and Patric are two of a group of childhood friends who seek revenge for abuse suffered at the hands of guards at a juvenile detention facility years earlier. One of the guards is played by...Kevin Bacon.
6 Charlie Chaplin
Surely, someone from the silent movie era couldn't have a connection with a modern-day actor like Kevin Bacon, right? Wrong. And don't call me Shirley.
The Connection:
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967): Chaplin wrote and directed this comedy starring Marlon Brando as a US ambassador on board a ship who becomes entangled with a stowaway who turns out to be a Russian countess (Sophia Loren) fleeing her old life. Chaplin makes his final onscreen appearance in two short scenes as an old steward working on the ship. Brando's wife, meanwhile, is played by Tippi Hedren.
Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012): A whopping 45 years after A Countess from Hong Kong, veteran actress, Hedren, was cast in this Billy Bob Thornton period drama as the matriarch of a Southern family during the 1960s. Her scenes were actually cut, but her character's death spurs the movie's plot, which gathers members of her extended family for the funeral, causing tensions to arise. Her sons are played by Thornton, Robert Patrick and...Kevin Bacon.
