From Mystic River to Footloose, Codice d’onore, Apollo 13 and more recently, Il mondo dietro di te and Sirens, a quick look at Kevin Bacon’s filmography reveals why he’s become a true pop culture icon. The actor, who will appear in Family Movie in 2026 – a horror-comedy involving his entire family, including wife Kyra Sedgwick and children Travis and Sosie – was born in Philadelphia in 1958. He is the youngest of six siblings, the son of an urban planner and architect and an activist teacher.
His cinematic debut came at the age of 20 with a role in Animal House (1978), the celebrated comedy directed by John Landis, where he played a member of a fraternity. He followed this with parts in Friday the 13th (1980), some television films, and youth theatrical productions like Slab Boys on Broadway.
It was 1984 when, at 26, he landed the role that would make him world-famous: Ren McCormack, the rebellious boy who challenges the strict rules of a small town in Footloose. After a less successful period in the late 1980s, a breakthrough came with JFK – Un caso ancora aperto (1991) by Oliver Stone, where he played a gay prostitute and demonstrated his versatility.
From there, a series of titles solidified his reputation: Codice d’onore (1992) alongside Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise; a Golden Globe nomination for The River Wild – Il fiume della paura (1994) with Meryl Streep; Apollo 13 (1995) with Tom Hanks; and Mystic River (2003) with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Films that helped define his image as a charismatic, fascinating, and extraordinarily intense actor.
Recently, Bacon was a guest on the Podcrushed podcast, hosted by Penn Badgley (You, Gossip Girl), focusing on the years of adolescence, between anxiety, puberty, and self-discovery. The actor of X-Men – L’inizio explained that he grew up in downtown Philadelphia: “My father worked for the Municipality, he was an urban planner, and he wanted to raise his children in the city, not in the suburbs.”
Bacon explained that he has many years difference compared to his other five siblings: “My parents had two daughters before World War II. Then my father enlisted in the Navy. Years later, three children were born in a row. And eight years later, I arrived. So I was a mistake, although my mother will always deny it. But it’s impossible to have five children and say: ‘What a great idea, let’s have another one,’” he said with irony.
Now 67, the actor recalls attending public school and growing up with the example of a very socially engaged mother: “She helped poor children, worked for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. I grew up with a decidedly activist mindset.”
