The Oracle of Bacon

Who is the Center of the Hollywood Universe?

Hopefully, you've played around a bit with The Oracle of Bacon and discovered how few steps are necessary to link just about anybody who has ever been in a movie to Kevin Bacon, but could there be some actor or actress who is even closer to the center of the Hollywood universe? The answer turns out to be: yes.

By processing all of the 2,530,751 actors and actresses in TMDB, I discovered that there are currently 529 people who are better centers than Kevin Bacon! What does it mean for one person to be a "better" center than another? Consider the following breakdown of people by Bacon Number (as of November 14th, 2024):

Bacon Number	# of people
0	1
1	2,425
2	253,942
3	808,623
4	304,907
5	42,046
6	7,331
7	1,776
8	632
9	242
10	58
11	21
12	2

That means that there is 1 person who can be linked in 0 steps (Bacon himself), 2,425 people who can be linked in 1 step, 253,942 people who can be linked in 2 steps, etc. So we can compute the average Bacon Number as follows:

$\begin{matrix} \frac{0 \cdot 1 + 1 \cdot 2425 + 2 \cdot 253942 + 3 \cdot 808623 + 4 \cdot 304907 + 5 \cdot 42046 + 6 \cdot 7331 + 7 \cdot 1776 + 8 \cdot 632 + 9 \cdot 242 + 10 \cdot 58 + 11 \cdot 21 + 12 \cdot 2}{1 + 2425 + 253942 + 808623 + 304907 + 42046 + 7331 + 1776 + 632 + 242 + 58 + 21 + 2} \\ = \frac{4430523}{1422006} \\ = 3.116 \end{matrix}$

So the average Bacon Number is about 3.116. We can compare that with the average Jackson Number for actor Samuel L. Jackson. The breakdown is as follows (as of November 14th, 2024):

Jackson Number	# of people
0	1
1	5,839
2	375,650
3	807,926
4	197,618
5	27,785
6	5,089
7	1,378
8	473
9	172
10	54
11	19
12	2

By computing the average of these numbers we see that the average Jackson Number is about 2.923 making Jackson a better center than Bacon. This is not to denigrate Mr. Bacon, and it should be noted that being the 530th best center out of 2,530,751 people makes Bacon a better center than 99% of the people who have ever appeared in a feature film. A list of the 1,000 best centers in the Hollywood universe is available for your enjoyment.

Is there a "worst" center (or most obscure actor) in the Hollywood universe? Of course. I won't tell you the name of the person who produces the highest average number—won't you have more fun finding him/her yourself?—but his/her table looks like this (as of November 14th, 2024):

XXXXXX Number	# of people
0	1
1	2
2	11
3	3
4	25
5	12
6	5
7	2
8	15
9	16
10	171
11	10,445
12	240,095
13	883,490
14	245,088
15	33,403
16	6,696
17	1,616
18	668
19	192
20	44
21	6

That's an average of 13.057!