Is Kevin Bacon America’s greatest actor?

As a general heuristic, if the headline to an article asks a question, the answer is bound to be “No.” Why? Because headlines are simplistic, needing to capture a thought, and idea, an opinion, within a breath. By contrast, an article necessarily needs to explore with depth and nuance, to shun the short answer – and especially the short answer in the affirmative. There is only one route to yes, after all, and a universe of ways to get to no.

In this case, though, let’s not be too quick to find that no.

Nearly forty years since his debut in Animal House, Kevin Bacon has done big budget, small budget, leading man, ensemble, action, schlock, and nearly everything in the cracks. But the early brush with star status following Footloose led down a bumpy road to his unusual current status as an extraordinarily recognizable character actor.

Footloose as a sensation is difficult to overstate: a hit film that made a pile of money on a comparatively small budget; a popular soundtrack that threw off multiple #1 singles; a Tony-nominated stage musical 15 years after the film; a bigger-budget remake more than a quarter century later whose failure to live up to the original only adds to the lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon. All this adds up to a solid place in the American cultural consciousness. And it made Bacon a household name.

It is hard enough for any actor to walk away from the leading roles that follow the “overnight” success, and even harder to choose ones that might sustain that success. Bacon was a victim of both pitfalls. Some of his roles soon after Footloose – Quicksilver, White Water Summer, She’s Having a Baby, Criminal Law – show casting directors (and Bacon himself) trying on the various “lead” types:  rebel, action hero, romantic, even psychopath.

Nothing worked. Perhaps Footloose was a fluke; perhaps Bacon couldn’t really carry a film. But here’s where it gets interesting. After failing to gain traction as a lead in big-budget productions, many erstwhile A-listers (Brendan Fraser comes to mind) have been content to take the lead in smaller and less serious films. But Bacon didn’t set his sights on lower-budget leading parts. He jumped into secondary (and even tertiary) roles in vehicles for other stars like A Few Good Men, and smaller roles in ensemble pictures like JFK.

And he was brilliant. His role in JFK, his first big leap, is small but memorable, and thoroughly against his previous “type.” Playing a male prostitute, he steals his big scene from Kevin Costner with equal parts bravado and profanity. Then, in A Few Good Men, Bacon excels as the one JAG neither cowed nor confused by Tom Cruise’s legal bluster. As Cruise’s adversary, he brings a gravity to the role as a young prosecutor, and humanizes the face of the opposition despite the fact that we are rooting against him.

Neither film is a showpiece for him, neither role is terribly complicated, and any character actor could have “done” the role. But Bacon turned both into standout performances in small roles. What he did next was a bravura moment. In Sleepers, a film with a young male ensemble cast that might have featured Bacon 10 years earlier, he instead took the unsympathetic role of a horrifically abusive guard in a boys’ juvenile home who is murdered by former inmates in revenge for his crimes against them. In his choice to play this role, and the choices as an actor that construct the character, Bacon is bold and fearless – and he plays an unredeemed monster chillingly.

Similar supporting roles followed in films like Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, and Black Mass, along with some indie roles like Digging to China. And in each, he took on complex roles, historical characters, and touchy subject matter that would have been untouchable right after Footloose. He probably hit that note hardest in The Woodsman -- a daring move that cast the former heartthrob of Footloose as a complex paroled child molester struggling with his competing desires.

To be fair, missteps followed as well, including the execrable The Air Up There. But a spin through the Bacon filmography, rather than cementing an impression of bad choices, seems to indicate an actor hungry for challenges. Like Gene Hackman (who used to be America’s greatest actor), Bacon seems to simply relish working. The list of films he’s appeared in is so long and diverse, it’s no mystery why he found himself at the center of a Hollywood connectivity parlor game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

None of this is to suggest that Bacon is without competition for the crown of greatest actor. His contemporary Sean Penn (who has a Bacon Number of 1, by way of Mystic River) might have the best critical reputation, and Tom Cruise (Bacon Number of 1, through the previously mentioned A Few Good Men) is the hands down winner at the bank. But Bacon has a charisma that is unique, he presents an everyman charm the other two lack, and he projects a star quality that still leaves us seeing his minor roles as A-list cameos.

Look, I’m just going to say it. The answer is yes.