Editing Kevin Bacon (section)

=== Early work ===
Bacon left home at age 17 to pursue a theater career in New York City, where he appeared in a production at the [[Circle in the Square|Circle in the Square Theater School]]. "I wanted life, man, the real thing", he later recalled to [[Nancy Mills]] of ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]''. "The message I got was 'The arts are it. Business is the devil's work. Art and creative expression are next to godliness.' Combine that with an immense ego and you wind up with an actor."<ref name="cosmo91">''Cosmopolitan''. March 1991, p. 92.</ref>
Bacon's debut in the [[fraternities and sororities|fraternity]] comedy ''[[Animal House|National Lampoon's Animal House]]'' (1978) did not lead to the fame he had sought, and Bacon returned to waiting tables and auditioning for small roles in theater.<ref name="bacon">{{cite web|title=Kevin Bacon: 6 Things You Didn't Know|url=http://www.biography.com/news/kevin-bacon-biography-facts|publisher=biography.com|access-date=October 12, 2014|archive-date=April 3, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403203113/https://www.biography.com/news/kevin-bacon-biography-facts|url-status=dead}}</ref> He briefly worked on the television soap operas ''[[Search for Tomorrow]]'' (1979) and ''[[Guiding Light]]'' (1980–81) in New York.