Singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson dies at 88

Kris Kristofferson, the Rhodes Scholar with a skilled writing style and charismatic personality who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Christopherson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, family spokeswoman Abby McFarland said in an email. He was 88 years old.

McFarland said Christopherson died peacefully surrounded by his family. No reason was given.

In the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native recorded country and rock ‘n’ roll hits such as “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “For the Good Times” and “Me.” Wrote role standards. And Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as songs sung by others, whether Ray Price singing “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin singing “Me and Bobby McGee.” yes.

He starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice doesn’t live here anymoreopposite Barbra Streisand in 1976 a star is bornAnd with Wesley Snipes at Marvel blade in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove complex folk ballads about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottom slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters, along with peers like Willie Nelson, John Prine, and Tom T. Hall.

“There is no better songwriter than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson said at the 2009 BMI Awards ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we all just have to live with that.”

Kristofferson retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash’s daughter Roseanne at Nelson’s 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang “It Was Easy to Love Her (Nothing I’ll Ever Do Again), a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another great interpreter of his work. Was.

Nelson and Kristofferson, along with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, would form the country supergroup “The Highwaymen” in the mid-1980s.

FILE – Country stars Johnny Cash, left, and Kris Kristofferson sing during the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Tennessee in October 1983.

Christopherson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a master’s degree in English from Merton College, Oxford University in England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the US Army but turned down an appointment to teach at the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, in favor of songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studios in 1966, when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal “Blonde on Blonde” double album.

At times, Kristofferson’s legend was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell the mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cash’s lawn to deliver the tape of “Sunday Morning ‘Comin’ Down” with a beer in one hand. In interviews over the years, Kristofferson has said, with all due respect to Cash, that when he landed a helicopter at Cash’s house, at the time the Man in Black was not even home, the demo tape was a song that no one had actually played. And he certainly couldn’t fly a helicopter with a beer.

In an interview in 2006 The Associated PressHe said that without cash his career probably would not have been possible.

Kristofferson said, “Shaking Cena’s hand when I was backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment I decided I would come back.” “It was electric. He took me under his wing before he could cut any of my songs. He cut my first record which was the record of that year. He put me on stage for the first time.”

One of his most recorded songs, “Me and Bobby McGee”, was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song in mind titled “Me and Bobby McKee”, named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in “Performing Songwriter” magazine that he was inspired to write the song after watching Frederic Fellini’s film about a man and woman on the street together. La Strada,

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut his version just days before his death from a drug overdose in 1970. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.

Hits recorded by Kristofferson include “Watch Closely Now,” “Desperados Waiting for a Train,” “A Song I’d Like to Sing” and “Jesus Was a Capricorn.”

In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career, earning them two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.

File – Kris Kristofferson performing on stage in August 1973.

The formation of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash and Jennings, was another important point in his career as an artist.

“I think I was different from other people because I came into it as a fan of all of them,” Kristofferson said. AP in 2005. “I had respect for him when I was in the army. When I moved to Nashville they were like major heroes to me because they were people who took music seriously. It was a little surreal to not only be recorded by him but also to be friends with him and work together. It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.

The group released only three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there had been some discussion about reforming the group with other artists such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it would not have been the same.

Kristofferson said in 2005, “When I look back now – I realize I heard Willie say it was the best time of his life.” For me, I wish I had been more aware of how short this time would be. It’s been years, but it still feels like the blink of an eye. I wish I had cherished every moment.”

Of the four, only Nelson is now alive.

Kristofferson’s sharp-edged political lyrics sometimes hurt his popularity, especially in the late 1980s. Their 1989 album, “Third World Warrior”, focused on Central America and the impact United States policy had there, but critics and fans were not enthusiastic about the overtly political lyrics.

He said during an interview in 1995 AP He remembered a woman complaining about a song that started with the killing of children in the name of freedom.

“And I said, ‘Well, what made you angry – the fact that I was saying it or the fact that we’re doing it? To me, they were getting angry at me because I was telling them What was happening?

File – Kris Kristofferson poses for a portrait in Nashville, Tennessee, August 15, 1995. , Photo Credit: Mark Humphrey

As the son of an Air Force general, he joined the army in the 1960s because that’s what was expected of him.

“I was in ROTC in college and it was just assumed in my family that I would serve,” he said in 2006. AP Interview. “In my background and the generation I grew up in, honoring and serving your country was simply taken for granted. So, later, when you questioned some of the things being done in your name, it was especially painful.

Hollywood may have saved his music career. While he could not afford to tour with a full band, he still gained exposure through his film and television appearances.

Kristofferson’s first role was that of Dennis Hopper. the last movieIn 1971.

He had a passion for Westerns and used his gravelly voice to play charming, cool leading men. He was Burstyn’s most handsome lover Alice doesn’t live here anymore And a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand a star is bornThe role was reprized by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake.

He was the young titular outlaw in director Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the KidA Truck Driver for the same director in the 1978s Convoyand director John Sayles’s 1996 A Corrupt Sheriff, lone StarHe also starred in one of Hollywood’s biggest financial flops, heaven’s gateA 1980s Western that was millions of dollars over budget.

And in a rare role in a superhero film, he played the mentor of Snipes’ vampire hunter blade,

He described it in 2006 AP Interview: How he got his first acting gig when he performed in Los Angeles.

Kristofferson said, “It so happened that my first professional gig was opening for Linda Rondstadt at the Troubadour in L.A.” Christopherson said, “Robert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a glowing review and the concert was held for a week.” “There were a lot of film people coming there and I started getting film offers without any experience. Of course, I had no experience performing.