How to quickly untangle credits of two different actors?

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The credits of the voice actor
  Lionel Wilson (II) (1924-2003) nm0933759
and the film actor
  Lionel G. Wilson nm6074891
are badly tangled.

Until 18 months ago, the credits of the voice actor and the film actor were together in a single list under the name "Lionel G. Wilson".  They were then separated with the voice actor becoming "Lionel Wilson (II)" and the film actor "Lionel G. Wilson".  But as part of the separation, many of the credits for the voice actor's performances were mistakenly (perhaps automatically) modified to say "(voice, as Lionel G. Wilson)" or "(as Lionel G. Wilson)".  In every case the  credit in the original performance is "Lionel Wilson" with no middle initial.  The voice actor did not have a middle initial and was never credited that way.  His hundreds of cartoon credits, over 100 audiobook credits, 30-odd play credits, TV series, and a dozen book credits all read "Lionel Wilson".  (The audiobooks, plays, and books are not listed in IMDb.)

The question is how to correct this error without the tedious exercise of submitting several hundred separate edits.  For example, every one of the 33 episodes of Courage the Cowardly Dog in which Wilson voiced Eustace Bagge is miscredited in IMDb.  As evidence of the correct credit, here is a screenshot of a YouTube video of the end credits of Courage the Cowardly Dog:  



In the fourth line from the top the credit is "Lionel Wilson as Eustace", with no middle initial.  The original video may be reviewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJyZUwZPmSc at 0:07 to 0:09.

Similarly, the 12 episodes of Superbook and the many separately listed episodes of Possible Possum, The Mighty Heroes, Deputy Dawg, etc., need to be changed.  Every credit in the Filmography section that says "(voice, as Lionel G. Wilson)" should simply say "(voice)" and every example of "(as Lionel G. Wilson)" should be deleted.  In addition, the "Personal Details/Alternate Names" line should be deleted.

Is there a way to accomplish this massive change without sending in hundreds of separate contributions?
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Jerry Saltzer

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Posted 2 years ago

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Jeorj Euler

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Jerry Saltzer

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Thank you for the suggestion.  However, that help page describes how to solve a different problem: moving filmography credits from one name to another.  That is not the problem I am trying to solve.  All of the listed credits are currently associated with the correct name.  The problem is that many of those credits include an incorrect claim that the credit in the film is different from the actor's name.  I didn't see any indication in the suggested page how to change that.
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Jeorj Euler

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The "as" attribute?
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Jerry Saltzer

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Yes.  There are a hundred or more examples of "as Lionel G. Wilson" that should be deleted.  My question is how to do that without submitting a hundred or more separate contributions.
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Jeorj Euler

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#181015-025024-677000
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Jeorj Euler

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The IMDb system itself does not provide non-staff with a way to quickly do this.
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Jerry Saltzer

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Is there a way to request staff help for this correction?  A person with ability to do direct editing could probably make the changes in a few minutes, but using the public contribution system would involve several hours of tedious and repetitive typing and clicking.
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Jeorj Euler

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Maybe, but I've taken steps using the third party tools at my disposal to make the corrections myself, albeit only in regards to Courage the Cowardly Dog.
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Jerry Saltzer

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Thank you!
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Jerry -

The credit corrections for the series "Courage the Cowardly Dog" and "Anime oyako gekijô" have now been made, for the remaining credits, if you haven't done so already, please submit the applicable corrections (removing the incorrect attributes) through our online form and our editors will take a look at those entries.  Thanks!
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Jeorj Euler

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Jerry Saltzer, as you can see, the IMDb site authorities monitor new content of this forum and reply to it if necessary, so there you have it, a way to arrange for the solving of IMDb problems too big nor non-staff to solve.
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Jerry Saltzer

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Hi Michelle,

Thanks for jumping in and for the suggestions.  

I have one concern:  Is it necessary to provide separate evidence for each of the 37 remaining entries that need to have the "as" attribute removed?  Or can I simply refer to this conversation?

Also, there is one item that I apparently cannot change with the online form:  On the Lionel Wilson page, under "Personal Details / Alternate names" it says that "Lionel G. Wilson" is an alternate name.  Since the voice actor never used that name, that line should be removed, but it does not come up when I click on "Edit" for that panel.

                                                      Jerry
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Jerry -

I would encourage you to submit the credit corrections first and reference this thread within the Explanation field, if you have further evidence easily available for some of the titles you are welcome to upload it here or somewhere online, you can then also link that in the Explanation field of your update.  At this point, I don't think it's necessary to provide evidence for all 37 credits.

Concerning the Alternative Name listing on the page, this is automatically derived from the credits where he is credited under "Lionel G. Wilson", once the credits have been corrected it should then automatically be removed.
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Jerry Saltzer

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Michelle,

Got it.  Thank you.
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Jerry Saltzer

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Here are a few more examples of correct Lionel Wilson credits.  Each of these films is currently listed on IMDb with the incorrect attribute  "as Lionel G. Wilson":

Re:  The Enchanted Journey   
   From Clements, Jonathan; McCarthy, Helen (2015). The Anime Encylopedia,
   3rd Revised Edition: A Century of Japanese Animation.
   Enchanted Journey (alphabetical, no page numbers).
    

Re:  The World of Hans Christian Andersen (Hansu Kurushitan Anderusan no sekai)
  From the YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5WjWwbf-rc
  at 1:11:59 to 1:12:05
   

Re:  separately listed episodes of The Mighty Heroes: The Big Freeze / The Shocker / The Drifter / The Ghost Monster / The Monsterizer
  From McCall, Douglas L. (1998). Film Cartoons : a guide to 20th century
  American animated features and shorts. p. 202.
   

Re:  The Hector Heathcote Show
  From McCall, Douglas L. (1998). Film Cartoons : a guide to 20th century
  American animated features and shorts. p. 196.
    
Re:  Tom Terrific
  See  https://genedeitchcredits.com/roll-the-credits/35-lionel-wilson/ for the full story.

  From Ehrbar, Greg (3 July 2018). "Terrytoons' 'Tom Terrific' and Lionel Wilson
  on Records". Cartoon Research.
    

Re:  Armstrong Circle Theatre
  From Hawes, William (2001). Live Television Drama, 1946–1951. p. 280.
    

Re:  The Aldrich Family
  From Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle F. (1992). The Complete Directory to Prime
  Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present. p. 28.
   

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Will, Official Rep

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Hi Jerry,

Have you tried to amend the attributes via the submission form linking to this thread in the explanation field?

Regards,
Will
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Jerry Saltzer

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Will,

Thanks for following up. I submitted the form (with 37 corrected credits) just a few minutes ago.  The explanation fields all include a link to to this thread.  I had to maneuver to get through the checker for three series that have episodes.  I am pretty sure that I did that the right way for Hector Heathcote and Tom Terrific, but I'm not sure about Deputy Dawg.

Jerry
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Michelle, Official Rep

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Hi Jerry -

Thanks for the additional information, I can see that the updates you submitted have now processed and the credit attributes have been removed: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933759/

Cheers!
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Jerry Saltzer

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Michelle,

Yes, Lionel Wilson's filmography looks much better.  Thank you for all of your help.

However, the change process did create one new problem.  Before we started, The Deputy Dawg Show (at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204767/ listed Dayton Allen as starring in 110 episodes and Lionel [G.] Wilson as appearing in "Unknown episodes".  After the change it shows Lionel Wilson as starring in 63 identified episodes.  That is almost certainly wrong--I don't think that anyone has figured out just which episodes Lionel Wilson helped voice.  When I submitted that particular change, there didn't seem to be any way to indicate "Unknown Episodes".  Until someone identifies the actual episodes, it might be better not to list Deputy Dawg in Lionel Wilson's filmography at all.  What do you suggest?

Jerry