Old US actor raised as alternative to poets (7)

I believe the answer is:

robards

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'old us actor' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'raised as alternative to poets' is the wordplay.
'raised' says the letters should be written in reverse (going up in a down clue).
'as alternative to' becomes 'or'.
'poets' becomes 'bards' (bard is a kind of poet).
'or' back-to-front is 'ro'.
'ro'+'bards'='ROBARDS'

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I've seen this clue in The Times.

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