How to get a random IMDB page?

May 18, 2018 6:26 AM

IMDB.com used to have a link (www.imdb.com/random/name or /title) that would give you a random actor's (or movie's) page. In the last few months they appear to have quietly removed it. Is there any way, perhaps some third party site or something, that would provide this functionality?
posted by Naberius to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nmxxxxxxx will bring back ALL names, not just actors. The good news is that there are 8.4 million name entries, so you have an 84% chance of getting a hit with a random 7-digit number. Approximately a third of those people are actors and actresses, so even if you're really just interested in them, about one quarter of your random hits will be what your looking for. https://www.imdb.com/title/ttxxxxxxx accesses 4.7 million title entries, so there your chances are only slightly less than 50-50.

Perhaps a better way is to go to https://www.imdb.com/search/name or https://www.imdb.com/search/title and choose some non-obvious criteria. For example, https://www.imdb.com/search/name?star_sign=aries gives a list of the 33K actors and actresses who have an Aries birth-sign. And https://www.imdb.com/search/name?death_place=Dallas*&gender=female&has=death-place gives a list of the 65 actresses who died in Dallas, Texas (note the use of the asterisk for a wild card).

These lists can be sorted in several ways, leading to more random fun.
posted by ubiquity at 8:54 AM on May 18, 2018