@YetAnotherMovieWatcher wrote:

Item: Dick Howard
Type of Problem: Incorrect_content
Extra Details: This Dick Howard entry is IMDB nm0145967.
Entering http://imdb.com/name/nm0145967 brings up a different URL,
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0065776/, whose name is Timothy Beckley.

Thanks for your report!

This was indeed very complicated! There was also a third entry for his longer name "Timothy Green Beckley". I merged all of the info into this entry:

https://www.themoviedb.org/person/101738-tim-beckley

Timothy Beckley's most often used alternate name on IMDB is Dick Howard. The TMDB credits to Dick Howard match the IMDB credits to Timothy Beckley.

So far it looks like a perfectly acceptable name mismatch between an often-used TMDB name (Dick Howard) matching a little-used name on IMDB (Timothy Beckley). That's okay.

Yes, it is. I think IMDb uses the name "Timothy Beckley" because that's the name he uses more recently as a radio host for shows about UFOs etc. and as a book author. The name "Dick Howard" is a name he used back when he was in adult, horror and slasher films, but it seems that's in the past. I researched and read only a little portion of what's available online - for example:

https://mvdb2b.com/?site_id=news&id=159
http://kcorradio.com/KCOR/Exploring-The-Bizarre-Timothy-Beckley-Tim-Swartz-KCOR-Digital-Radio-Network.php
http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/timothy-green-beckley-aka-mr-ufo-aka-mr-creepo.25962

Also, his current facebook uses the name "Tim Beckley" - and I think we should use this one here on TMDb (confer to the Contribution Bible).

My question is: nm0145967 brings up nm0065776 on IMDB. Should the IMDB ID field on TMDB be changed to nm0065776 to link to Mr. Beckley directly?

In general, yes! Usually, when you report a duplicate to IMDb, they merge their data to the entry with the lower IMDb ID and also set a redirection link to this entry from the duplicate (TMDb does not set a link, by the way, we delete the duplicate page).

For example: That's the reason why it jumps from nm0145967 to nm0065776 when you enter nm0145967! It's a redirection from a former duplicate that was merged at some point in the past. Our data input here on TMDb was obviously done before the merge on IMDb - that's why we have the old and out of date ID saved. But we always prefer the accurate, up to date IMDb ID!

I hope that answers all your questions - that was a complicated issue!