Sports Poets Society

Robert Gauthier - Los Angeles Times  OSCAR WINNER Nominated for an Academy Award seven times, Robert Duvall won the lead actor award for his role in 1983’s “Tender Mercies.” When asked about his acting technique, Duvall once said, “It’s just talking and listening.” He is shown in 2010 in Beverly Hills. Actor renowned for intense roles 17 feb 2026 - Los Angeles Times By Steve Chawkins When Robert Duvall was floundering around in college, his father, a career Navy man who retired with the rank of rear admiral, told him to shape up — and start acting . “I wasn’t pushed into it but suggested into it,” Duvall once told an interviewer. “They figured I did skits around the house. They figured I had a calling, or whatever, in that line.” They figured correctly. With his weathered face and receding hairline, he did not stand out for his movie star looks but for the intensity and depth he brought to his craft. New York Times film critic Vincent Canby in 1980 called him “ the best we have,...

Vince Compagnone Los Angeles Times ‘HE JUST WANTED TO PLAY’ Campbell, playing the Warriors in 1994, brought an easygoing, warm demeanor that endeared him to teammates and fans alike. He remains Clemson’s career scoring leader with 1,880 points. Inglewood native who won hearts with his easygoing demeanor and an NBA title with Detroit was 57. 4 Dec 2025 - Los Angeles Times Former Laker Campbell dies By Broderick Turner Former Lakers center Elden Campbell, who played 8 1⁄2 seasons of his 15-year NBA career with the Los Angeles team he watched while growing up here and attending Morningside High, died Monday. He was 57. “He was a man to whom family meant everything — generous, funny, disciplined and kind, but could shut you down if required,” the Campbell family said in a statement Wednesday. “A man of God, he passed doing what he loved; fishing out on the ocean, enjoying his idea of an ideal day.” More details about the cause of death are not known. Former Lakers teammates and friends of...

Jason LaVeris FilmMagic -  EVEN after success, actor Diane Keaton remained iffy about her looks, her talent and her achievements. In interviews, she openly admitted to feeling inadequate. Actor had own ‘la-di-dah’ confidence Diane Keaton’s singular fashion sense — best captured in ‘ Annie Hall ’ — masked her insecurities, yet exuded confidence 14 Oct 2025 - Los Angeles Times AMY NICHOLSON FILM CRITIC When Diane Keaton was 11, her father told her she was growing into a pretty young woman and someday, a boy would make her happy. She was horrified. One boy? Keaton — then going by her birth name of Diane Hall — needed to be loved by everyone. It was an early sign that she was meant to be an actor. “Intimacy meant only one person loved you, not thousands, not millions,” Keaton wrote decades later in her 2011 memoir “Then Again.” Like drinking and smoking, she added, intimacy should be handled with caution. “I wanted to be Warren Beatty, not date him,” Keaton confessed, romancing fellow ...

Eric Sondheimer - Los Angeles Times  CHERIF MILLOGO is so tall that he can  stand under a basket and touch the rim. Golden Knights’ new basketball player hails from tiny Burkina Faso in West Africa. 13 Oct 2025 - Los Angeles Times By Eric Sondheimer Wearing size 17 shoes and standing 7 feet 3, Cherif Millogo is under the basket holding up his arms and touching the rim without leaving the ground. The rest of the “tiny” people in the St. Francis High gym are gawking in awe at his 7-9 wingspan.  That includes 6-8 head coach Todd Wolfson, who has twice won the basketball coaching lottery by having his second 7-footer show up out of nowhere. The first was 7-0 Belgium exchange student Gilles Dierickx when he was coaching at Chaminade in 2017. This time, Wolfson received a phone call from an administrator at St. Francis in August. “There’s a 7-3 kid wanting to come to St. Francis,” the administrator said. “I thought he was lying,” Wolfson said. Millogo didn’t play last season w...

20th Century Fox ROBERT Redford, left, Paul Newman in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” Redford made dreams into realities with Sundance His institute and festival nurture new generations of creators 17 set 2025 - Los Angeles Times By Mark Olsen It all started with a purchase of land in the 1960s. Then, from that small slice of Utah and the founding of the Sundance Institute in 1981 and, later, its expansion into the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford developed a vision that would reshape on-screen storytelling as we know it. Sundance opened doors for multiple generations of filmmakers who might not otherwise have gained entry to the movie business. Redford, who died Tuesday at age 89, was already a hugely successful actor, producer and director, having just won an Oscar for his directorial debut “Ordinary People,” when he founded the Sundance Institute as a support system for independent filmmakers. His Utah property, named after his role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundanc...

Getty Images AS BOB Woodward in “All the President’s Men,”  with Dustin Hoffman, Redford traded charm for credibility. 10 essential films, with roles before and behind the camera 17 Sep 2025 - Los Angeles Times By Joshua Rothkopf, Josh Rottenberg and Glenn Whip Robert Redford’s impact on cinema through the Sundance Film Festival was supercharged. His work behind the camera was often extraordinary, winning the Oscar for his directorial feature film debut, “Ordinary People.” But Redford the actor was equally exceptional, a charismatic icon who starred in some of the greatest films in the 1970s and ’80s, movies that remain ingrained in our collective memory. And time did not diminish him. He arguably gave his greatest performance at the age of 77 in “All Is Lost.” Listing all of Redford’s notable work in front of and behind the camera is impossible. You could spend a year exploring his filmography and still not be finished. Here are 10 of his best. Watch these and then keep digging fo...

Genaro Molina Los Angeles Times “ TO APPRECIATE - Redford fully, we have to applaud not only the work he did but the simple, feel-good roles he rejected,” writes Times film critic Amy Nicholson. He never gave a repeat performance 17 Sep 2025 - Los Angeles Times AMY NICHOLSON Robert Redford looked like he walked out of the sea to become a Hollywood god. He was physically flawless. Pacific blue eyes, salt-bleached hair, a friendly surfer-boy squint. Born in Santa Monica to a milkman and a housewife , his first memory was of sliding off his mother’s lap at the Aero Theatre as a toddler and running toward the light, causing such a ruckus that the projectionist had to stop the film. He definitely grew up to grab the movies’ attention. He wasn’t just telegenic but talented, although that wasn’t a requirement for stardom when he emerged in the late ’50s when the industry was scooping up hunks like him by the bucket for television and B-movies. All a male ingenue needed to do was smile and kis...

Steve Schapiro Fahey / Klein Gallery OFF THE BEATEN PATH - Redford as Halsy Knox, a motorcyclist banned from the track, alongside Lauren Hutton in 1970’s “Little Fauss and Big Halsy.” Making a difference behind the camera 17 set 2025 - Los Angeles Times By Nardine Saad Sundance Kid’s reach surpassed the big screen Robert Redford, a generational icon who commanded the big screen as the star of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Way We Were” and won awards and lasting praise for directing films such as “Ordinary People,” has died. He was 89. Long a critical force in the elevation of independent filmmaking through the Sundance Institute, Redford died Tuesday morning at his home, his publicist confirmed. He was “in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” the statement said. Redford was a natural star who seemed to comfortably reflect the postwar zeitgeist in America with his choice of movie roles and side projects. As Newsweek put it, “What Red...