In honour of the seasoned actor’s 59th birthday, we run down 20 of the best roles from his long and varied career. (Picture credit: Euan Cherry/WENN.com)

There are certainly much worse ways to make your screen debut than in one of the best-loved comedies ever, from director John Landis and co-writer Harold Ramis. A 19 year-old Bacon starred alongside the legendary John Belushi. (Picture credit: Universal)

Bacon is one among the many Hollywood stars to get a breakthrough role in a trashy horror movie. This low-rent ‘Halloween’ knock-off unexpectedly launched one of the longest-running slasher franchises ever, and gave the actor a very memorable death scene. That’s hardly a spoiler, is it…? (Picture credit: Paramount)

Bacon (pictured centre, almost obscured by a post) gave the first clear indications of his range in this early Brat Pack-era drama from director Barry Levinson, notable for its cast of future stars including Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Steve Gutenberg and Paul Reiser. (Picture credit: MGM-UA)

The role he’ll always be remembered for, this dance-fuelled drama casts Bacon as a rebellious teen (he was 26 at the time) who butts heads with the powers that be when he moves to a puritan town in which rock’n’roll and dancing are outlawed. (Picture credit: Paramount)

This tongue-in-cheek monster movie par excellence casts Bacon as handyman Valentine, who must lead his neighbours to safety when their small town comes under attack from the carnivorous subterranean ‘Graboids.’ Bacon will play Val once more in the upcoming ‘Tremors’ TV series, marking the first time he’s reprised a role – unless we count those EE adverts. (Picture credit: Universal)

Another film most notable for its illustrious Brat Pack cast, Bacon joins Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin and Oliver Platt in director Joel Schumacher’s supernatural thriller about five medical students experimenting with the near death experience. A remake starring Ellen Page hits cinemas this September. (Picture credit: Sony)

Bacon’s career entered a more adult, character-based phase with this supporting role – alongside Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman and Jack Lemmon – in Oliver Stone’s Oscar-nominated drama exploring the conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F Kennedy. (Picture credit: Warner Bros)

Another juicy role in an all-star cast, Bacon played the prosecuting attorney opposite Tom Cruise’s defender in this acclaimed military courtroom drama from director Rob Reiner, with Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore. (Picture credit: Sony)

Bacon made his first, but not certainly not last appearance as a bad guy alongside Meryl Streep in director Curtis Hanson’s intense survivalist thriller. It was enough to earn him his first Golden Globe nomination. (Picture credit: Universal)

One of Bacon’s best but sadly most overlooked roles, this fact-drama cast him as a petty criminal wrongfully convicted of murder, who is psychologically tormented by three years in solitary confinement. Christian Slater and Gary Oldman co-star. (Picture credit: Warner Bros/Studiocanal)

Once again, Bacon proved a key component of a sterling ensemble cast, topped by Tom Hanks, in Ron Howard’s acclaimed drama based around the true events of NASA’s catastrophic Apollo 13 mission. (Picture credit: Universal)

One of his darkest roles, this reunion with ‘Diner’ director Barry Levinson cast Bacon as a predatory reform school guard who sexually abuses the boys in his charge, only for them to take brutal revenge as adults. The all-star cast includes Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt and Jason Patric. (Picture credit: Warner Bros)

Bacon played it a little safer in this gleefully trashy erotic thriller, notorious for its frequent twists. Taking top billing, Bacon plays the cop investigating the labyrinthine case filled with sex, money and murder, alongside Matt Dillon, Neve Campbell, Denise Richards and Bill Murray. (Picture credit: Sony)

This above-average supernatural thriller, based on the novel by Richard Matheson (‘I Am Legend’), didn’t get the attention it deserved in the wake of ‘The Sixth Sense,’ with which it shares some common ground. Bacon plays an ordinary guy who, after being hypnotised, suddenly finds himself seeing ghosts. (Picture credit: 20th Century Fox)

Bacon stays firmly in B-movie territory with director Paul Verhoeven’s high-tech, ultra-violent update of ‘The Invisible Man.’ Elizabeth Shue and Josh Brolin co-star as Bacon’s mad scientist uses himself as a guinea pig for an invisibility serum, with psychotic results. Boasting state of the art FX for the time, Bacon played his invisible scenes on set under a green suit and make-up. (Picture credit: Sony)

Once again proving that no big-name ensemble is complete without Kevin Bacon, the actor joined Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Laurence Fishburne, Laura Linney and Marcia Gay Harden in Clint Eastwood’s acclaimed adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s novel, which won Oscars for both Penn and Robbins. (Picture credit: Warner Bros)

Another of his boldest roles, this independent drama based on Stephen Fechter’s stage play cast Bacon as a convicted child molester who, having served his time behind bars, attempts to re-adjust to life as a free man. (Picture credit: Prism Leisure Corporation)

Bacon’s back in villain mode in this madcap satirical superhero movie from future ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ writer-director James Gunn. Rainn Wilson takes the lead as an average joe who decides to become a masked crimefighter when his wife, Liv Tyler, leaves him for Bacon’s local crime boss. (Picture credit: Koch Media)

Another bad guy role for Bacon – and they don’t come more worse than a former Nazi scientist-turned-mutant supervillain, in director Matthew Vaughn’s 1960s-set prequel which successfully revived the then-ailing ‘X-Men’ movies. (Picture credit: 20th Century Fox)

That’s right, Bacon’s a bad guy yet again, as a crooked small-town sheriff hunting down the young boys who took his car for a joyride in this offbeat low-budget thriller from future ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ director Jon Watts. (Picture credit: Universal)