Quoting TomGaines:

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Quoting RHFactor:

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"Tom Wilson" is not the commonly credited name for the man in Back to the Future.  "Thomas F. Wilson" is.

I still do not believe, that the man, who has played Biff in BTTF, is more commonly credited as "Thomas F. Wilson". And I do not trust the lookup tool in this regard, as as I said, the main database is still full of IMDb data.

I have to agree. Like I said before, we need to start going through dvds and verifying credits against IMDB.com's website to make sure they are not a direct copy before voting or if they are in the database already we need to correct them. I know that IMDB is a bad source for information, but a majority of the other Tom Wilson's roles are uncredited. Could you pick him out from the other cast members? I'll give you a hint, he is African-American.

Also if Thomas F. Wilson's common name is not Tom Wilson, then why is his representives calling him Tom Wilson? Source: http://www.macdonald-murray.com/t_wilson.htm Wouldn't they know better?

I would also think a well known magazine, TV Guide would know better also, http://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/ted-danson/photos/176332/11

Quoting TomGaines:

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  Again: What rules? There are no rules for common names yet! Or did I miss something?

Here are the credit rules:
Crew and Cast
Take Crew Credits from the film credits only; list names exactly as they are in the credits. Exception: If the credit information is entirely capitalized, use standard capitalization rules instead. 

Use the "As Credited" field where the person's name differs from the credited name.

Do not enter union/guild affiliations, such as A.C.E. and B.O.E.

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.

If the birth year change is due to an accepted change to another profile, indicate that.

Cast and crew images are not contributed with the profile.

Group names of crew members together within each role available and list in exactly the same order credited. The table below gives each of the crew roles available within DVD Profiler. For each category, include only those people credited with the roles listed in the "Film Credits to Include" column. If someone is not credited with one of these roles, do not include them in the Crew section.

For the purposes of this section we define "standard" film credits as those where all credited actors involved are listed together in a single section at the end of the film - defined here as the "end credits". The section details both the actor’s Name and the Role that they played in the film. The credits may be listed "in order of appearance", "alphabetical order" or in an order of importance decided by the filmmakers. Some actors may be credited a second time in either credits at either the opening or close of the film.

For any film with standard credits, take the actor information from the end credits only, with names and roles listed exactly as they are in the credits and in exactly the same order credited.  Exception: If the credit information is entirely capitalized, use standard capitalization rules instead.

Use the "As Credited" field where the actor's name differs from the credited name.

If a film does not have standard credits, use the following rules:

If a film has actors listed in the opening credits, which are not listed in the end credits, add these to the list in DVD Profiler before those taken from the end credits.
If a film has no end credits, but does have actors credited elsewhere, enter the actors from those credits.
If an actor is credited by name but does not have an associated role, you may use another source to identify the role. In each case, list Actor’s names and roles (when given) exactly as they are in the credits and in exactly the same order credited.


In addition to the above, the following rules should be followed:

For animated films, use the "Voice" checkbox.
If puppeteers are included in the end credits include them and append (puppeteer) at the end of the role.
If an actor name is only a first name or stage name enter it entirely in the first name field. Examples are Cher, Madonna, Cedric the Entertainer & Queen Latifah.
If an actor's credited name includes a nickname, highlighted by ", ’ or ( ), list it in the middle name field. For example John "JS" Smith, John ‘JS’ Smith or John (JS) Smith
Articles (such as de, de la, di, von) are entered in the appropriate name field along with the name that they precede. Use the film credits to determine whether the actor capitalizes this article or not.
Uncredited actors may be listed in alphabetical order following all credited actors. Use the "Uncredited" checkbox to indicate these. Uncredited actors are not required entries.
Do not translate foreign language role names to the language of the locality unless a translation is provided in the film credits.
Do not include artificial actor entries to act as separators between cast lists. (e.g. "--JAPANESE CAST--"), instead use the Divider feature for this.
Do not list actors and crew who appear only in special features, or whose scenes were deleted from the main feature, even if they appear in special features.

Do NOT use IMDb style Roman Numerals to distinguish between crew members or actors using the same name

I too am missing the rules on common names. Maybe my DVD Profiler is different, just like Tom's.

Although it may be true that Tom "Biff" Wilson is mostly credited as Tom Wilson, I must say that IMHO, the middle initial is a better way of distinguishing him from the other Tom Wilson than birth years. As I see it, either we list him as Tom Wilson (1959), or we list him as Thomas F. Wilson. I'd still prefer the latter...

Quoting T!M:

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Although it may be true that Tom "Biff" Wilson is mostly credited as Tom Wilson, I must say that IMHO, the middle initial is a better way of distinguishing him from the other Tom Wilson than birth years. As I see it, either we list him as Tom Wilson (1959), or we list him as Thomas F. Wilson. I'd still prefer the latter...

A few post back I offered to entered a BY for Tom Wilson (1959), while keeping it as the common name for Thomas F. Wilson, so there wouldn't be any confusion, between the the 2 Tom Wilson's while keeping the link between his more recent credits.  RHFactor's response was:  "Would I agree?  Of course not.  If I agreed, I'd simply have entered a birth year myself."

Quoting RHFactor:

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Quoting T!M:

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Although it may be true that Tom "Biff" Wilson is mostly credited as Tom Wilson...

There's the thing, T!M, it's *not* true.  He is mostly credited as Thomas F. Wilson.  I provided numbers in the corrected submissions.  While I do absolutely agree with you, the fact remains that he really does have more credits WITH the middle initial.  Unless, of course, you simply "don't want to believe that".

This, of course, is also why I wouldn't agree with the placing of a birth year as Eagle mentions in the previous post.  He, of course, omitted WHY I wouldn't agree.


Small update: while researching, it seems that there are not two "Tom Wilsons" out there in movie land.  There are nineteen.  And that is not counting our "Thomas F.".

Okay, great! I'll keep "Thomas F. Wilson" as his common name, then. Not only matches that with most of his credits in my own database (I have a four-to-one ratio), but it's also a welcome way to distinguish him from any other actor(s) named Tom Wilson - I really prefer this solution over birth years.

Edit: I do really need to add that ordinarily, the actor's own website would be a very-hard-to-dismiss factor for me in deciding on a "common name" - as far as I remember this is the first time that I actually made a different decision. But again: we have already established that Tom Wilson is definitely not an option: it should either be Tom Wilson (1959), or the full Thomas F. Wilson. Based on the 4:1 ratio of credits in my own collection favouring Thomas F. Wilson, combined with the fact that I 'd prefer to use the full name to distinguish various actors named Tom Wilson rather than using birth years, I decided upon the latter.

Quoting RHFactor:

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Quoting TomGaines:

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Eagle has provided my list of credits what I was actually able to collect and the more common name was Tom Wilson (TV profiles count in DVD Profiler). Also if you look at his IMDb page you will see, that he IS credited Tom Wilson in most of his movies.

IMDB is, as you already know, not a valid source.  Only film credits themselves are valid.  Only film credits are what we use in DVD Profiler.  Of course, you "don't believe" that, and there's nothing I can do to change your mind.  If you're seeing more "Tom Wilson" than "Thomas F. Wilson" in films then you're getting the wrong Tom in there again because he is not credited more as Tom.  The only impartial source we have is Ken's lookup tool, where he is overwhelmingly credited as Thomas.

Yes, I know all of both of your counter arguments, you've said them enough times.  "I don't believe it" isn't a rational argument.

So, here's what I am going to do.  I am going to let the votes decide.  We'll know the outcome in a couple days.

I see that this discussion will lead to nowhere, so this is the last I will post on this topic. I am aware, that there will and are different opinions what the common name should be. And I also said, that I have profiled more TV shows and movies where our Tom is credited than probably anyone else here in this thread and I have found, that he is more often credited as Tom Wilson. The lookup tool in my opinion is not a reliable tool for this, because the affected profiles are mostly taken from IMDb and as you said, that is not a valid source. I only mentioned IMDb (and I even expected I'd get a counter argument that this is not valid, which I surely know and share the opinion), because I found, if they list a additional "as credited" mention, that most times that is correct and there are more Tom Wilson credits than Thomas F. Wilson listed there.

That way I have given three independent sources why I think, that Tom Wilson is the better common name choice:
1) My very own observation over more than a handful credits with our Tom
2) The actor's own website
3) The count of Tom Wilson vs Thomas F. Wilson in IMDb

Bottom line is: We do not have a rule set by Invelos how to decide the common name.
There will be different opinion until this is so. I only made my opinion known. You have your opinion. Not the end of the world

Quoting RHFactor:

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Just because we disagree on something doesn't mean I don't respect you or your opinions.

Same here