Kevin Bacon Footloose
Kevin Bacon (born July 8, 1958, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) starred as Ren McCormack in Footloose (1984). He was 25 during production.
Footloose was the breakthrough after years of working
By the time Footloose opened in February 1984, Bacon had been working for six years. He had debuted at nineteen in Animal House (1978) — a small role as the nerdy ROTC pledge — and supported himself through the early 1980s on New York stage work, the soap operas Search for Tomorrow and Guiding Light, and a spear-carrier part in Friday the 13th (1980). His Broadway debut in Slab Boys (1983) put him on a stage with two then-unknowns named Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. (wikipedia, biography)
The break before the break was Barry Levinson's Diner (1982). Bacon, fifth-billed as Timothy Fenwick, was the manic depressive of the Baltimore boys' table — a performance that traveled by word of mouth through the casting community.
"Bolstered by the attention garnered by his performance in Diner, Bacon starred in Footloose (1984)." — Britannica, Britannica
He won the part of Ren after Tom Cruise (committed to All the Right Moves), Rob Lowe (injured at the audition), and Christopher Atkins were considered. The film grossed ten times its budget and made Bacon a star.
Bacon's complaint about the dance doubles
Bacon was not a trained dancer, and the warehouse solo — the film's signature sequence — was assembled from him plus four doubles. He has been candid, sometimes bitter, about the experience for forty years.
"I had a stunt double, a dance double and two gymnastics doubles." — Kevin Bacon, CNN (2011)
The doubles, Bacon has said, were necessary for the more athletic moments — the gymnastics, the longest jumps — but he resented the lighting and editing tricks that obscured how much of the warehouse number was him. Peter Tramm, the dance double, was reportedly upset at first that he wasn't being credited; the production eventually gave him screen credit. (cnn, looper)
The Footloose association would follow Bacon for decades. He has discussed it as both a blessing — it made his career — and a cage that took years to escape.
A selected filmography
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1978 | National Lampoon's Animal House | Feature debut, age 19 |
| 1980 | Friday the 13th | Early death scene |
| 1982 | Diner | Barry Levinson; ensemble breakthrough |
| 1984 | Footloose | Star-making lead |
| 1986 | Quicksilver | Bicycle messenger drama |
| 1988 | She's Having a Baby | John Hughes |
| 1991 | JFK | Oliver Stone; supporting |
| 1992 | A Few Good Men | Rob Reiner; supporting |
| 1994 | The River Wild | Curtis Hanson; lead villain |
| 1995 | Apollo 13 | Ron Howard |
| 1996 | Sleepers | Drama |
| 2003 | Mystic River | Clint Eastwood |
| 2010 | Frost/Nixon | Ron Howard |
| 2013–15 | The Following | Television lead |
| 2023 | Leave the World Behind | Sam Esmail |