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Sunday, December 18th, 2022

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Wrong birthdate, but I don't know the correct birthdate

I was looking for information about Thomas J. Wright (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0942869/). Wright has worked mostly as a television director for the last 30 years, but he got his start in the Art Department. In fact, for the main run of the TV series "Night Gallery", Wright created all of the paintings that Rod Serling used to introduce the stories. (Wright didn't do the paintings for the pilot or the segments added for syndication, but he did all the other paintings for the show from 1970 to 1973.)

However, I noticed that even though Wright's first credit (as a sketch artist for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) was from 1966, his birth date is listed as 13 April 1957. That would have made him no more than 9 years old when he worked on that film.

I looked up a book about "Night Gallery" (Scott Skelton & Jim Benson, Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, Syracuse University Press, 1999) to see if it had any biographical information about Wright. It didn't say when Wright was born, but it did say the following:

Wright, a graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute, had begun his career as a freelance advertising artist in Los Angeles. Then, as Wright says, "one thing just led to another. I got to know some people in the motion picture business, and I guess my first recognition as a painter and artist in my own right came as a result of some portraits I did of Hollywood celebrities, including some movie stars -- Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis, among others."

That led to work at various studios as an illustrator working on set and costume designs, continuity sketches, makeup design, even acting, "whatever I could do to make a living." After work on Hitchcock's Topaz and Robert Wise's The Andromeda Strain came the offer from Laird ["Night Gallery" producer Jack Laird], beginning Wright's work on his gallery of nightmares.

So I don't know how old Thomas Wright was when he started work on "Night Gallery" in 1970, but it certainly sounds like he was older than 13 years old at the time.

Is there anything I can do other than submit a deletion for Wright's birthdate, providing this information as an explanation, and hoping that IMDb will accept it?

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3 years ago

Hey @gromit82 -

Please upload the deletion request and place this thread on the comment so our editors know what's going on, let me know if you encounter any problem.

Cheers!

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@Bethanny​ Thanks. I have submitted the request as #221218-191944-998000 with the following explanation:

Thomas J. Wright's first credit (as a sketch artist for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming) is from 1966, but his birth date is listed as 13 April 1957. That would have made him no more than 9 years old when he worked on that film. Wright went on to create all of the paintings that Rod Serling used to introduce the stories on "Night Gallery" from 1970 to 1973, which supposedly would have made him 13 years old when he started working on that show.

According to the book Scott Skelton & Jim Benson, Rod Serling's Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour, Syracuse University Press, 1999, "Wright, a graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute, had begun his career as a freelance advertising artist in Los Angeles. Then, as Wright says, 'one thing just led to another. I got to know some people in the motion picture business, and I guess my first recognition as a painter and artist in my own right came as a result of some portraits I did of Hollywood celebrities, including some movie stars -- Gregory Peck and Tony Curtis, among others.' That led to work at various studios as an illustrator working on set and costume designs, continuity sketches, makeup design, even acting, 'whatever I could do to make a living.' After work on Hitchcock's Topaz and Robert Wise's The Andromeda Strain came the offer from ['Night Gallery' producer Jack] Laird, beginning Wright's work on his gallery of nightmares."

I don't know what Wright's actual birthdate was, but 1957 seems to be impossible for him.

See https://community-imdb.sprinklr.com/conversations/data-issues-policy-discussions/wrong-birthdate-but-i-dont-know-the-correct-birthdate/639e60519bb80c1cea23df47 for more information.

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@gromit82​ Approved!

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Thanks, Bethanny!