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 3,011,150 actors and actresses in TMDB, I discovered that there are currently 509 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 3rd, 2026):

Bacon Number# of people
0 1
1 2,573
2 287,654
3 957,455
4 363,425
5 53,883
6 11,157
7 2,739
8 867
9 287
10 102
11 26
12 3
13 3
14 1
15 1

That means that there is 1 person who can be linked in 0 steps (Bacon himself), 2,573 people who can be linked in 1 step, 287,654 people who can be linked in 2 steps, etc. So we can compute the average Bacon Number as follows:

0 · 1 + 1 · 2573 + 2 · 287654 + 3 · 957455 + 4 · 363425 + 5 · 53883 + 6 · 11157 + 7 · 2739 + 8 · 867 + 9 · 287 + 10 · 102 + 11 · 26 + 12 · 3 + 13 · 3 + 14 · 1 + 15 · 1 1 + 2573 + 287654 + 957455 + 363425 + 53883 + 11157 + 2739 + 867 + 287 + 102 + 26 + 3 + 3 + 1 + 1 = 5270405 1680177 = 3.137

So the average Bacon Number is about 3.137. We can compare that with the average Jackson Number for actor Samuel L. Jackson. The breakdown is as follows (as of January 3rd, 2026):

Jackson Number# of people
0 1
1 5,988
2 426,552
3 954,765
4 243,815
5 37,663
6 8,110
7 2,205
8 768
9 214
10 63
11 25
12 3
13 3
14 1
15 1

By computing the average of these numbers we see that the average Jackson Number is about 2.952 making Jackson a better center than Bacon. This is not to denigrate Mr. Bacon, and it should be noted that being the 510th best center out of 3,011,150 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 3rd, 2026):

XXXXXX Number# of people
0 1
1 1
2 1
3 3
4 3
5 2
6 5
7 9
8 12
9 8
10 5
11 2
12 5
13 60
14 4,733
15 214,710
16 966,893
17 414,060
18 63,575
19 11,894
20 2,946
21 894
22 262
23 72
24 21

That's an average of 16.221!