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Help with Birth Years for some Australian actors?
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DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorStaid S Barr
Registered: Oct 16, 2003
Registered: May 9, 2007
Netherlands Posts: 1,536
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Where Hollywood actors generally are required to avoid duplication of names, this does obviously not apply before a certain date, and even more obviously not to foreigners.

There is a David White in Mortified (an Australian TV series from 2007), no information found as to his BY. This conflicts with David White who became most famous as Larry Tate in Bewitched (1964), whose BY is 1916 according to www.harpiesbizarre.com/beography_dw.htm (beo indeed!), and who died in 1990. Is this sufficient reason and documentation to provide the 1916 David White with a BY? Is it then acceptable not to provide the "other" David White with a BY at all?

There is also a John Howard, not the ex-prime minister, but another villain, from The Girl from Tomorrow (1990), with BY 1952 according to Wikipedia. This conflicts with a ubiquitous US actor from 1913 (among others in the Brady Bunch). Should we start adding BYs for both?

In The Henderson Kids (1985) we have a Paul Smith, with BY 1968 according to Wikipedia. There are dozens of Paul Smiths, for example one in Bewitched (1966), with a tentative BY of 1929. There are also Paul L. Smith, Paul Martin Smith and likely many more. Clearly not all the same person... but how to sort this out?
Hans
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantAgrare
Registered: May 22, 2007
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I think you answered your own question. The rules state:

Quote:
Enter birth years only when necessary to differentate between two actors with the same name. When submitting a contribution that adds a birth year to one or more credits, list justification in the contribution notes.


It says nothing about Hollywood actors or Australian actors. It just says actors, which means all actors. So if two actors share the same name, find the birth year(s), provide proper documentation for it and submit it. Then provide proper documentation that (for example) Paul Smith in Bewitched is the 1929 one and not the 1968 one. However the database sees Paul L. Smith, Paul Smith, and Paul Martin Smith as 3 different people. So if  those are the only three than there is no need for birth year [edit] additionally, Paul L. Smith wouldn't need a birth year to differentiate between the 1929 one and the 1968 one [/edit]

if using wikipedia (or any 3rd party database) for your source for the BY I would supply at least 2-3 different sources if possible. The best source would be an official website\resume for the actor.

as far as not being able to find a birth year, if there are 2 actors and one has a BY on its record and the other doesn't they will be seen as different so this is ok. However, from past discussions, i believe it would be better to have birth year on both records due to the way the BY propogates and issues cause when restoring from a backup.

-Agrare
 Last edited: by Agrare
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantStar ContributorStaid S Barr
Registered: Oct 16, 2003
Registered: May 9, 2007
Netherlands Posts: 1,536
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You hit upon the problem. I can't find anymore sources than I mentioned, so any help would be appreciated (which I should have mentioned in the first place). The only "official" reference I found was for David White, which was on a website with biographies related to Bewitched.
And I realize that nationality does not make a difference, although BY is far from an ideal solution, judging by all the comments that gets.

Thanks.
Hans
DVD Profiler Desktop and Mobile RegistrantAgrare
Registered: May 22, 2007
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If you can only find one source for the BY then try contributing it stating that. What you could do to provide proof that there are two people is provide a screen cap of the character if possible to show that its different.

Though, I would think the information you mentioned. an actor in a 2007 TV series cannot be the same as an actor that died 17 years earlier would be sufficient

-Agrare
 Last edited: by Agrare
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