Item: Lincoln Stedman

Language: en-US

Type of Problem: Incorrect_content

Extra Details: There's no incorrect content. I'm submitting this report simply to request that the birth date field be locked as I've researched Lincoln Stedman in original records from throughout his lifetime (plus his death certificate), and it's clearly evident that he, indeed, was born in 1901. I make the lock request as IMDb has the birth date correct, but other sites (namely Wikipedia and Find A Grave) have it very wrong (1907). Locking the date will prevent anyone from changing the year to match what's on Wikipedia.

In all four of Lincoln Stedman's Federal census appearances - in 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 - from throughout his lifetime, thus from the time he was a boy onward, his presented ages always calculate (based on his known May birth month) to his birth year having been 1901. This makes clear that when he later claimed (perhaps to seem younger), on his 1944 marriage record, to have been born in 1906 that it simply wasn't true. That false 1906 birth year was perpetuated on his death certificate. (I've briefly addressed the conflicting birth years issue in the mini-bio that I've added to Mr. Stedman's overview page. That way people will realize we present 1901 for a solid reason, and that we haven't simply blindly copied it from another site.)

You can also safely lock the presented birth place and death date fields, as I've also verified those as accurate.

FYI: Whomever wrote Mr. Stedman's Wikipedia biography attempted to explain his believed (by them) 1907 birth year, and his looking decidedly much older than 9 or 10, then aging from there, in his early films, by stating, "Stedman had a career in films dating back to his boyhood in silent films....[He] convincingly play[ed] adult roles far beyond his years in real life." In actuality, he started in films when he was 16 in mid 1917. So after his first couple years in movies, he actually was an adult. I've seen Lincoln Stedman in a 1924 film (released in early July of that year), shot when he was 22-23, and he simply looks his actual age (like a young man born in 1901) in it.