Hollywood legend returns to high school in iconic 80s film for 40th anniversary-Robert Oliver-Entertainment – Metro

Kevin Bacon went back 40 years into his past (Picture: Paramount/Instagram)

Kevin Bacon went for a lovely trip down memory lane on Saturday as he revisited the high school where iconic 1980s movie Footloose was filmed.

The American actor, 65, starred in the 80s musical drama film as Ren McCormack – it was filmed at Payson High School and became one of the most successful films of 1984.

In the film, the face now best known for those EE adverts moves from the big city of Chicago to a small town in Utah where dancing and music are banned by a local Reverend.

Kevin revisited the high school over the weekend after a social media campaign inviting him back to Payson went viral – the brilliant hashtag was #BaconToPayson.

As part of the campaign, students from the school recreated legendary scenes from Footloose, which also starred John Lithgow, Lori Singer, and a young Sarah Jessica Parker.

The actor spoke to the crowd at Payson High School in Utah (Picture: Six Degrees/Instagram)

Marking its 40th anniversary, Kevin spoke to the students, saying: ‘When I first heard about this Bacon to Payson thing, I was like, “Wow, this is crazy”. But you were all just tireless.’

He then praised the kids for ‘talking [him] into it’ and later remarked that he appreciated the effort put in to get him back to the central US state.

According to reports in CNN, Kevin added: ‘[Thank you for] turning what could be just a movie star coming back to get a pat on the back into something really positive.’

Footloose was one of the biggest films of 1984 (Picture: Paramount/Everett/Shutterstock)

The Tremors actor was then presented with an honorary diploma from Payson High School, posed for selfies with dozens of students, and even made a visit to Ren’s locker from the film.

Footloose was nominated twice in the same year for the same Oscar award, for best original song, with both Kenny Loggins’ Footloose and Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It for the Boy both emerging as huge hits from the film.

Since its success in 1984, when it was the seventh highest-grossing film of the whole of that year in America, it has gone on to become an even bigger cult hit.

Footloose became hugely famous for its soundtrack (Picture: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Footloose is often credited with really kicking off Kevin’s career, too – he’d appeared in a handful of roles before 1984, including the 1980 slasher film Friday the 13th, but 1984 saw his big break.

From that point on he became one of the biggest stars in cinema, eventually winning acting awards in the 1990s and 2000s for his performances in such movies as Murder in the First and Hollow Man.

Most recently, he was spotted in the cast of 2023 Netflix mystery thriller Leave the World Behind, which also starred Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke.

In 2011, Footloose’s popularity resulted in a remake, starring Kenny Wormald and Julianne Hough, alongside the likes of Dennis Quaid and eventual Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller.

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