Would you like to play a game?

[davywavy]

There's an urban myth which may or may not be true that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else within a maximum of six steps. The game Six Steps to kevin Bacon is a somewhat satirical take on this, but as a game it's often more fun to play from your own perspective. Think of someone famous and see how quickly you can get to them from people you have met.
I was thinking about this last night in the light of the 'ten years on' episode of This Life, the 'neighbours with nudity' show which was so popular with late night masturbators in the mid-1990's. I once met Amy Jenkins, creator of This Life, and she obviously knows actor Jack Davenport, who is in Pirates of the Caribbean with Jonny Depp, getting me to Depp in three steps.
From there I started to think of less obvious people. I can get to Hitler (My dad, stationed in France after the war, once went for a drink with Josephine Baker, who in turn used her fame to know a number of senior Nazi officers during the occupation, and from there it's a short step to the moustached nutter himself) and Churchill (I went to the same school as William Hague, who was an MP at the same time as Winston Churchill's grandson). George Lucas is an easy one (Both from the Star Wars premiere I went to, and also in one step from my meeting Michael Sheard) and I can even get to Audrey Hepburn pretty quickly (from Dwight Schulz to George Peppard, who starred with her in Breakfast at Tiffany's).
The question is, who can you lot get to? What wierd and wonderful steps link you to the great, good, and not-so-good?
Bonus points can be earned by quick links to:
Neil Armstrong
Eva Peron
Fidel Castro
Carlos the Jackal
William Shakespeare

Comments

[commlal.livejournal.com]

I can get to Samuel L Jackson in two steps. I've met (and had acting lessons) from Robbie Carlyle who was in 52nd State with Mr Jackson. This also gets me to Ewan McGregor and then onto so many.

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

my dad meet Buzz Aldrin who went to the moon with Neil Armstrong.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Wow, your dad is actually useful for something for once...

[kcontheroad.livejournal.com]

I met Arthur C. Clarke when I lived in Sri Lanka, who knows Buzz Aldrin, who went to the moon with Neil Armstrong, so there's the same three degrees with you on that one.

[commlal.livejournal.com]

Ahahaha!!!!

More

My line manager has met the queen, who has met RedKen, who has had a meeting with Fidel Castro!!!

I WIN!!

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Her Maj met Ken? I hope it was to say "Piss off out of my Palace, you horrid little oik".

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

I went to an astronomy/astrophysics conference at university which had lecturers from the 'International Space University' summer school who worked for NASA who looked old enough to have been working on the moon landings, but that's probably a bit vague :)

But I have met Patrick Moore, who has met Neil Armstrong, so that's much less vague :)

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

i asked patrick moore to marry me... he said no

but he was a gent about it

(i asked rolf harris too, but he was already taken)

((those are the only two men my mother has ever given her blessing to a union with, for some unholy reason))

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

- I was about 500 yards away from Eva Peron's grave on Friday. (we drove past the cemetery in the bus but I didn't do the city tour the next morning)
- I would assume I could get to Neil Armstrong reasonably quickly via compilerbitch who works for NASA
- Harrison Ford in one step (Anthony Daniels and all the other Star Wars actors I met)

[(Anonymous)]

I once met Boris Johnson!
Do I win?

H

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

yes.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

My link in is a set/prop creator for the matrix sequels and star wars prequels. So I'm 2 steps from Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, George Lucas, Ewan Macgregor etc. From Ewan it's easy to get almost anywhere, the man gets around.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

It's kinda like meeting Michaerl Sheard - the man appeared in both Star Wars and Indiana Jones and from there you can get pretty much anywhere in entertainment very quickly.

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

does cutting up bits of famous people count as meeting them?

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Which bits?

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

I can get to Fidel Castro. The question is, did Juan Peron and Castro ever meet, as if they did then I can get to Eva Peron as well...

Samuel L Kacjson, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Ewan Mc G, Neve Campbell and probably several more I can do in one step. But I cheat. :-)

[adventink.livejournal.com]

Me to Issac Asimov To Neil Armstrong (Dr. A was a consultant to NASA) from there go to George Low (NASA Dirctor) to Kennedy (but I believe there was a direct meeting so forget Low. From Kennedy we go (if not directly, then from CIA Director Allen Dulles) to Castro and Peron.

Asimov to Kennedy to Richard Nixon to George Bush senior to Hugo Chavez to Carlos the Jakal (might be less, but the CIA disavows any knowledge...).

And the Bard?

Me to you to Baker to Churchill to King George and back to Liz the First...(do we get extra steps when covering 600 or so years?)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I think we can fairly add two extra steps per century :)

[gnommi.livejournal.com]

um.. so, I've met (as in at least held a decent conversation with)

Rolf Harris
Patrick Moore
Boris Johnson
Jean Paul Gaultier
Magenta Devine (http://www.facetoface.org/sp_3.html)
Richard Dawkins
Steve Jones (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/biology/academic-staff/jones/jones.htm)
Mark Chadwick (http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/music/images/levellers_gig_270.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/music/levellers_rev.shtml&h=165&w=270&sz=28&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=N8HDUQ6iMM_J_M:&tbnh=69&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmark%2Bchadwick%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN) (and the other Levellers)
Gary Oldman
Matt Black (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Black)
Mark Moore (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=7900250)
Siobhan Fahey
Brian Sewell

There are probably a bundle more but that have slipped the memory temporarily (I've tended to meet odd people out clubbing, nuff said). I should think you can get quite a few wierd and wonderful places with that lot. My lab head got knighted last year too, so he's met HRH, and that should get me a few places!

God only knows how you could get to Shakespeare o_O

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

How on earth does one have a decent conversation with Magenta Devine?

[hiromasaki.livejournal.com]

Me > Co-Worker Cindy (Swafford) Brady > Niece Sherri Swafford > Steve Perry

Me > drd2be > Stuart Davis (The singer, not the painter.)

[hiromasaki.livejournal.com]

Ah! I nearly forgot...

Me > Nightwish. One step.

I had the wonderful opportunity to talk shop with Marco after their Cleveland, OH show two years ago, and got to shake hands and exchange small talk with Tuomas and Julius as well. Emppu and Tarja were conspicuously absent, though.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

You know, I thought you said you met Mister T, which would have been most cool indeed. And I reckon the A-team are a great link to the rest of the world.
I see Dirk Benedict is on Big Brother. How are the mighty fallen.

[kcontheroad.livejournal.com]

I've played this one before with SB. I've met the following famous people and so am only two degrees of separation from anyone they know (presumably rather a wide network):

Member of extended family:
Mary Wimbush (played Julia Pargetter-Carmichael on The Archers and Aunt Agatha on Jeeves and Wooster)

Met and had a meaningful conversation:
Madeleine Albright
Isaac Asimov
Ray Bradbury
George Bush (elder)
Arthur C. Clarke
Walter Cronkite
Richard Gere
Condoleezza Rice
Sir Henry Taylor, then Governor General of the Bahamas

Met, as in been introduced to and shaken hands:
Beverly Sills
Ruth Buzzy
James Baker III
Bill Clinton
Al Gore
Julio Iglesias
Kim Young-Sam, then President of Korea
Carl Reiner
Tommy Smothers

Guess I'm pegged as an old fogey.

[(Anonymous)]

A cousin of ours once spent two hours swapping World War 2 reminiscences with George Bush (senior) in the engine room of the Mount Washington.

H

[kcontheroad.livejournal.com]

Oops. Forgot to mention I've had a long telephone conversation wtih Shirley Temple Black. I'm probably forgetting some others, too.

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

Since no one else has mentioned him yet-
Carlos the Jackal(Ilich Ramirez Sanchez) met Col.Qathafi of Libya several times.
Blair has met Libya's leader.
Blir kinda knows the Labour MP's of Britain.
I know plenty of Labour MP's.

4 steps.
Reckon I could do it in three- Carlos' brother use to pick up irish girls in London.
;)

[wendy-lady.livejournal.com]

Living in a small town in Montana, one would think that I wouldn't meet many famous people, but here is the list!

Ted Turner
Jane Fonda
Peter Fonda
Michael Keaton
Brooke Shields
Larry Hagman
Robert Redford
Jamie Lee Curtis
Wilt Chamberlain
Jeff Bridges
Ronald Reagan
Brad Pitt

Ooo, just realized that I could get to Teddy Roosevelt (kind of)! I've met Robert Redford who directed A River Runs Through It, written by Norman MacLean, who met President Roosevelt while out fly fishing!

Neil Armstrong in 3

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

I met the Queen Mother when she visited Royal Holloway some years back.
She, quite obviously, know the Queen, who has met Neil Armstrong.

The Queen has met the following astronauts at Buckingham Palace (http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page4831.asp)
a. The first astronaut to go into space - Russian - Major Yuri Gagarin.
b. The first woman in space - Russian - Mrs Valentina Tereschkova.
c. The first man on the moon - American - Neil Armstrong - and the other American astronauts, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin.

:) This amuse me more than it should!

[vampwillow]

hmmn. I've met a Royal, worked with many actors and politicians, and quite a few 'musical performers' and know a wide assortment of odd people (some of whom appear on my flist!). Best I can do of that lot though is a 3 (two people, going by the comments above)

Name someone more interesting!

[vampwillow]

That should have read "Name someone more interesting *for us to try and get to!* ...

[themadone.livejournal.com]

I can get to Depp in two steps. I know someone who was in The Libertine with him. I don't know who else she met whilst on the set, but if she met John Malkovich that gets me Kevin Bacon in 3 steps.

cryx was in Shaun of the Dead and Still Crazy, so that gets me (and most of us) linked to all manner of actors and stuff.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

She was in Still Craxy too? She's like a star or something.

riksowden and sesquipadelity were both in Sean of the Dead, too.

[fonnparr.livejournal.com]

I can get to George Lucas eventually,

My robotics professor at university was Noel Sharkey,
whom worked with Craig Charles in Robot Wars,
whom starred with Danny John-Jules in Red Dwarf,
whom appeared in Little Shop of Horrors with the likes of Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Bill Murray, John Candy AND Frank Oz,
one step away from George Lucas

[hiromasaki.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly more impressed with the link to The Cat than I am the link to Lucas...

[barty.livejournal.com]

I once had an English lesson from a Cuban poet who was exiled from Cuba by Fidel Castro (though I don't know if it was done in person).

I can get to Albert Einstein in four steps:

I once chatted with Miranda Richardson.
Miranda Richardson was in Black Adder Back & Forth with Kate Moss.
Kate Moss was in Original Copies with Patrick Moore.
Patrick Moore once met Albert Einstein and accompanied him on the piano as he played Saint-Saëns' Swan on the violin.

From Einstein there are a number of routes to Hitler. For instance:

Albert Einstein met Max Planck at The Solvay Congress of 1927.
Max Planck once met Adolf Hitler, and failed to convince him to U-turn on his antisemitic policies.

[fonnparr.livejournal.com]


I can get to Neil Armstrong in a slightly different way


                                 Jason (me)
                           David Jason (Comedian/Actor)
                     Craig David       (Singer)
              Daniel Craig             (Bond 21)
         Jack Daniels                  (some sort of drink, I'm told)
Samuel L Jackson                       (Mace Windu, etc...)
Sam Niell                              (Jurasic Park)
    Neil Armstrong                     (Astronaut)