A New Game... [UPDATED]

Given the propensity of my friends to play various trivia games (one at which I stink, and one at which I rock), I thought I might add my own 'game' to the mix. Here's the thing, and it's straight out of my high school career - remember the Kevin Bacon game? 'Six Degrees,' where you attempt to link actors to Kevin Bacon by listing various other actors they've performed with? Well, I'm taking that to another level. It's no longer limited to Kevin Bacon. The goal is to link any two actors together within six moves. Here's an example (one that I did back in 11th grade to win our group's competition): James Dean to James Earl Jones.

1) James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor in Giant
2) Elizabeth Taylor to Elizabeth Perkins in The Flintstones
3) Elizabeth Perkins to Tom Hanks in Big
4) Tom Hanks to Carrie Fisher in The 'Burbs
5) Carrie Fisher to James Earl Jones in Star Wars

James Dean to James Earl Jones in five moves.

So now, I'm going to list some actor combinations, and the challenge to you is to link 'em, if you can. Note that the only allowable moves are from movie to movie. TV and other media are not valid.

Ready?
1) Christian Slater to River Phoenix
2) Joaquin Phoenix to Gabriel Byrne
3) John Malkovich to Marlon Brando
4) Ned Beatty to Liam Neeson
5) Rutger Hauer to Ethan Hawke
6) Luiz Guzman to Joseph Mazzello

There's a few for you to work on. If you want more, then figure out how I got from each 'last' actor to the next (that is, for example, from Liam Neeson to Rutger Hauer). In the event of a 'tie' (a solution provided by two people) the solution with fewer moves wins...or gets more points...or whatever.

I remembered after I posted this that the rule for being 'within six moves' is thrown out in this version of the game, as it may require a great number of moves to complete the linking. Fewer moves are always to be desired, however. And, on another note, for the purposes of this game, using IMDB is NOT considered cheating. You might feel better about yourself if you don't use it, but it's not a 'requirement.' Happy Linking!
-- posted by Austin @ 2:02 PM (PermaLink/Comment) ¶