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How Do You Correct an Error Regarding "Self" vs. "Actor"? Example -- Wendell Corey
Sometimes the IMDb miscategorizes an appearance of an actor, calling it a "Self" appearance rather than a genuine acting role, or vice versa.
Here is a case: Wendell Corey appears in an acting role as an unnamed military doctor in the 1947 short Easy to Get, a military training film. I have the short as a bonus feature in the new Universal Film Noir Volume 1 set from Indicator, on the disk containing Abandoned, and I have watched it. The IMDb correctly lists him as a cast member in this short; see:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8748442/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm
Yet on Corey's *own* page, on his *own* list of credits, the appearance does not show up in his "Actor" list, but only in his "Self" list. This is an error, as he is not playing "Wendell Corey" but an unnamed military doctor.
When I try to go into the "Edit this Page" menu, to put in a correction, to get the appearance moved from "Self" to "Actor", the software will not let me work with either list separately, and the master chart for Corey, which has all his Self and Actor roles jumbled together (by alphabetical order of titles rather than date order, which is insane) does not even show the Easy to Get appearance, so one can't edit it from there.
Can anyone tell me how to put in this correction?
While I'm on the topic of this short, there are a several other actors in Easy to Get who are *not* playing themselves, but playing fictional people in the short, yet on their own individual pages, are said to playing themselves in the short. Here is the whole list of actors in the short (including Corey), who, on their own individual pages, must have Easy to Get moved from their "Self" list to their "Actor" list:
Wendell Corey
Ruby Dee
Russell Evans
Louise Franklin
Suzette Harbin
Ken Renard
Howard Washington
bderoes
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2 years ago
The title is classified as a documentary.
Is that really what a training film should be?
Surely that's the reason for the Self category.
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gromit82
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2 years ago
OFL: The problem here is that this film is categorized in the Documentary genre. When a film is in the Documentary genre, by default all cast members will have it listed in their "Self" section, even if they were playing a role.
However, there is a way to fix this situation. If this film is indeed a Documentary yet contains some scripted, fictionalized scenes with actors playing characters, please submit the keyword reenactment to the Keywords section of the film's page (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8748442/keywords/).
As explained at https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/keywords/GXQ22G5Y72TH8MJ5#special, "reenactment" is a specialized keyword used by IMDb "for a Documentary so that actors portraying scripted people are not listed as 'Self' if they have a character name." Note that it doesn't matter whether the actors were or weren't reenacting that had actually happened.
(Alternatively, if this film were not a Documentary, the way to fix this would be to submit a deletion for the Documentary genre.)
Please note that this problem should be fixed at the "film" level (since it applies to the film overall), not by submitting corrections to the actors' respective credits. Also, even after the correction you submit is processed, it may take a few more days for the cast members' credits to be moved to the Actor/Actress sections of their pages, rather than Self.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
(Side note: You mentioned that "the master chart for Corey, which has all his Self and Actor roles jumbled together (by alphabetical order of titles rather than date order, which is insane) does not even show the Easy to Get appearance, so one can't edit it from there." I just checked what happens when one tries to edit Corey's acting credits, and I did see Easy to Get listed there. But, as I mentioned above, you wouldn't use this editing function to make the correction you need. See below.)
(edited)
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