After a six-decade career, the prolific artist who was a big star in both Nashville and Hollywood retired in 2021.
The 88-year-old country musician Kris Kristofferson has managed a successful acting career in addition to his music.
Kristofferson “passed away peacefully” at home on Saturday, according to his family, who announced his passing on Sunday night. The statement, signed by his wife Lisa, his eight children, and his seven grandchildren, said, “We’re all so blessed for our time with him.” “I appreciate your love for him over the years, and know that he is grinning down at us all when you see a rainbow.”
Admired for his country songwriting’s grit, emotional openness, and literary skill, Kristofferson routinely topped the US country charts. Singers like Janis Joplin, Gladys Knight, and Johnny Cash all found success with cover versions of his songs. He collaborated with Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese during the mid-1970s, and in the 1976 A Star is Born remake, he earned a Golden Globe for his performance opposite Barbra Streisand.
On Instagram, Streisand honored her co-star, describing him as a “special” and “charming” performance. She wrote, “Watching him get the love and recognition he so richly deserved was a joy.”
“What a great loss,” said Dolly Parton, who sang duets with Kristofferson including “From Here to the Moon and Back.” What a talented author. What a talented actor. What a wonderful companion. Dolly, I shall always love you.
Wow, what a gentleman, what a wonderful soul, and what a lover of words, said country star Reba McEntire. I’m very happy I got to spend time with and meet him. Among my favorite individuals.
Kristofferson, who was born in Texas in 1936, went to high school in California and at first intended to become a novelist. He later studied literature at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and at Pomona College in southern California. His initial attempt at music was in the UK under the name Kris Carson, however the songs he recorded were never made public. He was inspired by the emerging rock ‘n’ roll scene.
He kept up his musical career while serving in the US army. He also learned how to fly a helicopter there, a talent he carried with him when he left the service in 1965, much to the annoyance of his military relatives. He later remarked, “I took pride in being the best laborer or the guy that could dig the ditches the fastest.” “Something within of me drove me to take on the difficult tasks. I realized that I had to get out and live since I wanted to be a writer in part.
He moved to Nashville, the center of the country music industry, where he was employed by Columbia Recording Studios as a janitor and bartender. Late in the 1960s, he composed music for Jerry Lee Lewis and country singers including Ray Stevens, Faron Young and Billy Walker, but his solo career faltered.
He had a breakthrough when he dropped off a tape of Johnny Cash’s songs at his house using a National Guard chopper. Cash later called the experience “kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn’t recommend.” Cash loved Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, and his version of Kristofferson’s song topped the country chart and took home the Country Music Association’s song of the year award in 1970.
The first of Kristofferson’s eighteen studio albums, which he would eventually release, was recorded in that year. During their brief relationship, Janis Joplin recorded his song “Me and Bobby McGee,” which went on to become a No. 1 hit following her passing in 1970. Help Me Make It Through the Night, another Kristofferson song from that year, became a successful single for Sammi Smith and was later covered by Elvis Presley, Gladys Knight, Mariah Carey and others.
The incredibly attractive Kristofferson had started an acting career by the time his fourth album Jesus Was a Capricorn reached the top of the country chart in 1972. He made his acting debut in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie. In addition, she starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), as the outlaw Billy the Kid in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and alongside Burt Reynolds in the sports comedy-drama Semi-Tough (1977). His Hollywood triumph was solidified with A Star Is Born, but Heaven’s Gate (1980), a notorious box office failure, eventually weakened it.
Willie Nelson recorded a successful album of Kristofferson covers in 1979, and the two worked together with Brenda Lee and Dolly Parton on a compilation of their mid-1960s tunes in 1982. Along with Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, Kristofferson and Nelson created the Highwaymen, another supergroup, in 1985. With Jimmy Webb penning the title tune for their debut album Highwayman, Kristofferson was back at the top of the country charts.
He publicly denounced US President Ronald Reagan‘s foreign policy in Central America during the 1980s, when the US was funding military action against left-wing groups in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Repossessed, Kristofferson’s 1986 album, alluded to the disputes.
Even though he has a steady acting career, it took a boost in 1996 when he costarred with Chris Cooper and Matthew McConaughey as the evil sheriff Charlie Wade in John Sayles’s critically praised neo-western Lone Star. Leading parts followed, such as Wesley Snipes’s portrayal of vampire hunter Abraham Whistler in three Blade films.
2021 saw Kristofferson’s retirement. His last movie appearance was in the 2018 thriller Blaze, which was directed by Ethan Hawke. The Cedar Creek Sessions, his most recent CD, was released in 2016.
In 1960, he wed Fran Beer for the first of his three marriages. In 1973, he wed Rita Coolidge, a singer, and their duets album, Full Moon, went on to become one of Kristofferson’s biggest hits, reaching the Top 30 pop charts. In 1980, they got divorced. He is survived by Lisa Meyers, his third wife, whom he wed in 1983 and with whom he shared five children in addition to the three he had from his previous two marriages.
