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Six Degrees of Separation
DVD cover
Directed by	Fred Schepisi
Produced by	Arnon Milchan
Written by	John Guare
Starring	Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	8 December 1993 (USA)
Running time	112 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

Six Degrees of Separation is a 1990 play by John Guare. Guare's play was adapted into a 1993 film directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Stockard Channing, Donald Sutherland and Will Smith. It explores the existential premise that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else in the world by a chain of no more than 6 acquaintances (see six degrees of separation).

The plot of the play was inspired by the real-life story of David Hampton[1], a con man who managed to convince a number of people in the 1980s that he was the son of actor Sidney Poitier. After the play became a dramatic and financial success, Hampton was tried and acquitted for harassment of Guare; he felt he was due a share of the profits that he ultimately never received.[2]

Another strong influence on the play and film is the novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. There are some very overt references to it, as when homosexual con artist Paul (the David Hampton character in the piece) explains the thesis paper he has just written on The Catcher In The Rye[3] to a family who takes him in for the night. There are also many more subtle allusions made both in the script and in the cinematography of the film version. While one has to be familiar with the original work in order to pick up on the inferences, there are references which fall somewhere between these two extremes; such as when various characters begin to take on Holden Caulfield-esque characteristics and attitudes.

The film features cameo appearances by a number of New York society types including Kitty Carlisle Hart and the artist Chuck Close.

"I read somewhere that everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people. Six degrees of separation between us and everyone else on this planet. The President of the United States, a gondolier in Venice, just fill in the names. I find that extremely comforting, that we're so close, but I also find it like Chinese water torture that we're so close because you have to find the right six people to make the connection. It's not just big names -- it's anyone. A native in a rain forest, a Tierra del Fuegan, an Eskimo. I am bound -- you are bound -- to everyone on this planet by a trail of six people. It's a profound thought -- how Paul found us, how to find the man whose son he claims to be, or perhaps is, although I doubt it. How everyone is a new door, opening into other worlds."

- character Ouisa Kittredge

The play's original production opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center on November 8, 1990.[4]

• Stockard Channing — Ouisa
• John Cunningham — Flan
• Courtney B. Vance — Paul
• Kelly Bishop — Kitty
• David Eigenberg — Hustler
• Brian Evers — Detective
• Evan Handler — Doug
• Philip LeStrange — Policeman; Eddie
• Peter Maloney — Larkin
• Robert Duncan McNeill — Rick
• John Cameron Mitchell — Trent
• Robin Morse — Tess
• Mari Nelson — Elizabeth
• Stephen Pearlman — Dr. Fine
• Anthony Rapp — Ben
• Gus Rogerson — Woody
• Sam Stoneburner — Geoffrey

Kelly Bishop moved into the lead role of Ouisa later in the show's run, and Laura Linney made her Broadway debut as a replacement for the role of Tess.

• Stockard Channing — Ouisa Kittredge
• Will Smith — Paul
• Donald Sutherland — Flan Kittredge
• Ian McKellen — Geoffrey Miller
• Mary Beth Hurt — Kitty
• Bruce Davison — Larkin
• Richard Masur — Dr. Fine
• Anthony Michael Hall — Trent Conway
• Heather Graham — Elizabeth
• Eric Thal — Rick
• Anthony Rapp — Ben
• Oz Perkins — Woodrow ('Woody') Kittredge (as Osgood Perkins II)
• Catherine Kellner — Talbot ('Tess') Kittredge
• J. J. Abrams — Doug (as Jeffrey Abrams)
• Joe Pentangelo — Police Officer

• Small world phenomenon
• Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon (game)
• Erdős number
• 31 Days of Oscar, TCM's annual film festival, including information on a similar tactic used for the 2006 airing

• Six Degrees of Separation at the Internet Movie Database
• Six Degrees of Separation at the TCM Movie Database
• Six Degrees of Separation at the Internet Broadway Database
• Six Degrees of Separation at Rotten Tomatoes