As the youngest of six children, he left home at the age of 18. He went to New York and he attended classes at the Manning Street Actor's Theatre and at Circle-in-the-Square. He began his professional acting career on off-Broadway stages, where he first made himself a reputation by playing the part of drug-addict and male-prostitute Rickey in Alan Brown's Forty Deuce. He received an Obie award for this performance. He acted the same part later in P. Morrissey's film version. He made his debut on Broadway in 1983 beside Sean Penn, in the John Byrne's play Slab Boys. At the end of the 70's, he made TV and movie appearances. He was first noticed here through his role of Fenwick, a young man with an alcohol problem in the movie Diner. He also caught the public's attention by his leading role of a city-boy, who moves into a small town with a different attitude in the classic movie Footloose. Another successful role for Kev was his easy-going character by the name of Jack Briggs, whose premature marriage complicates his life in the bitter comedy She's Having a Baby. He also did a great job in the horror movie Flatliners, where he acts the part of a doctor, David Labraccio, who, together with his colleagues, gets involved in experiments with clinical death. Kev lived 6 years with the actress Tracy Pollard (who later married Michael J. Fox), marrying Kyra Sedgewick in 1988.

Kevin Bacon has established himself as an actor who can perform a broad range of roles. From the charming yet malevolent Wade in The River Wild to the straight-laced marine in A Few Good Men to a member of a shadowy conspiracy in JFK, Bacon creates complex and indelible characters. He most recently starred with Christian Slater in Murder in The First.

Some of his film roles include the self-destructive Fenwick in Diner, the dancing rebel in Footloose, an overly expectant father in She's Having a Baby, a killer in Criminal Law, a hapless handyman cowboy in Tremors and a film student in The Big Picture.

At the age of 17, Bacon became the youngest student to appear at Circle in the Square Theatre in New York. He studied acting in New York until he made his film debut as a preppy fraternity recruit in National Lampoon's Animal House. Shortly thereafter he appeared in Diner and Footloose and soared to stardom.

Bacon' s additional film credits include Quicksilver, Flatliners, He Said, She Said, Queen's Logic, JFK, The River Wild, Picture Perfect, A Few Good Men, etc...

His noteworthy stage roles include the off-Broadway productions Album, Poor Little Lambs and Getting Out. Bacon made his Broadway debut in 1983 with Sean Penn in Slab Boys and also starred in the 1986 production of Joe Orton's Loot.

The actor's television credits include the American Playhouse version of Lemon Sky, which teamed him with Kyra Sedgwick, who later became his wife.