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 2,608,981 actors and actresses in TMDB, I discovered that there are currently 522 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 January 23rd, 2025):

Bacon Number	# of people
0	1
1	2,432
2	259,250
3	832,840
4	313,978
5	44,212
6	7,942
7	1,979
8	640
9	238
10	88
11	19
12	8
13	3

That means that there is 1 person who can be linked in 0 steps (Bacon himself), 2,432 people who can be linked in 1 step, 259,250 people who can be linked in 2 steps, etc. So we can compute the average Bacon Number as follows:

$\begin{matrix} \frac{0 \cdot 1 + 1 \cdot 2432 + 2 \cdot 259250 + 3 \cdot 832840 + 4 \cdot 313978 + 5 \cdot 44212 + 6 \cdot 7942 + 7 \cdot 1979 + 8 \cdot 640 + 9 \cdot 238 + 10 \cdot 88 + 11 \cdot 19 + 12 \cdot 8 + 13 \cdot 3}{1 + 2432 + 259250 + 832840 + 313978 + 44212 + 7942 + 1979 + 640 + 238 + 88 + 19 + 8 + 3} \\ = \frac{4566415}{1463630} \\ = 3.120 \end{matrix}$

So the average Bacon Number is about 3.120. We can compare that with the average Jackson Number for actor Samuel L. Jackson. The breakdown is as follows (as of January 23rd, 2025):

Jackson Number	# of people
0	1
1	5,812
2	382,980
3	832,356
4	205,283
5	29,328
6	5,498
7	1,589
8	537
9	158
10	64
11	13
12	8
13	3

By computing the average of these numbers we see that the average Jackson Number is about 2.929 making Jackson a better center than Bacon. This is not to denigrate Mr. Bacon, and it should be noted that being the 523rd best center out of 2,608,981 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 January 23rd, 2025):

XXXXXX Number	# of people
0	1
1	3
2	6
3	3
4	7
5	5
6	6
7	15
8	18
9	3
10	20
11	173
12	5,591
13	76,044
14	806,535
15	490,621
16	69,458
17	11,486
18	2,457
19	756
20	303
21	81
22	36
23	2

That's an average of 14.404!