LOS ANGELES (AP) â Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.
McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family. No cause was given.
Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such country and rock ânâ roll standards as âSunday Mornin' Comin' Down,â âHelp Me Make it Through the Night,â "For the Good Times" and "Me and Bobby McGee." Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning âFor the Good Timesâ or Janis Joplin belting out âMe and Bobby McGee.â
He starred opposite in director Martin Scorsese's 1974 film âAlice Doesnât Live Here Anymore,â starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 âA Star Is Born,â and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvelâs âBladeâ in 1998.
Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, and Tom T. Hall.
"There's no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson," Nelson said at a 2009 BMI award ceremony for Kristofferson. âEverything he writes is a standard and we're all just going to have to live with that.â
from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash's daughter Rosanne at in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang âLoving Her Was Easier (Than Anything Iâll Ever Do Again),â a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another great interpreter of his work.
Nelson and Kristofferson would join forces with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup âThe Highwaymenâ starting in the mid-1980s.
Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, rugby star and football player in college; received a masterâs degree in English from Merton College at the University of Oxford in England; and flew helicopters as a captain in the U.S. Army but turned down an appointment to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Recordsâ Music Row studio in 1966 when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal âBlonde on Blondeâ double album.
At times, the legend of Kristofferson was larger than real life. Cash liked to tell a mostly exaggerated story of how Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Cashâs lawn to give him a tape of âSunday Morninâ Cominâ Downâ with a beer in one hand. Over the years in interviews, Kristofferson said with all respect to Cash, while he did land a helicopter at Cashâs house, the Man in Black wasnât even home at the time, the demo tape was a song that no one ever actually cut and he certainly couldnât fly a helicopter holding a beer.
In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, he said he might not have had a career without Cash.
âShaking his hand when I was still in the Army backstage at the Grand Ole Opry was the moment Iâd decided Iâd come back,â Kristofferson said. âIt was electric. He kind of took me under his wing before he cut any of my songs. He cut my first record that was record of the year. He put me on stage the first time.â
One of his most recorded songs, âMe and Bobby McGee,â was written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song title in his head called âMe and Bobby McKee,â named after a female secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview in the magazine, âPerforming Songwriter,â that he was inspired to write the lyrics about a man and woman on the road together after watching the Frederico Fellini film, âLa Strada.â
Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.
Hits that Kristofferson recorded include âWatch Closely Now,â âDesperados Waiting for a Train,â âA Song Iâd Like to Singâ and âJesus Was a Capricorn.â
In 1973, he married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career that earned them two Grammy awards. They divorced in 1980.
The formation of the Highwaymen, with Nelson, Cash and Jennings, was another pivotal point in his career as a performer.
âI think I was different from the other guys in that I came in it as a fan of all of them,â Kristofferson told the AP in 2005. âI had a respect for them when I was still in the Army. When I went to Nashville they were like major heroes of mine because they were people who took the music seriously. To be not only recorded by them but to be friends with them and to work side by side was just a little unreal. It was like seeing your face on Mount Rushmore.â
The group put out just three albums between 1985 and 1995. Jennings died in 2002 and Cash died a year later. Kristofferson said in 2005 that there was some talk about reforming the group with other artists, such as George Jones or Hank Williams Jr., but Kristofferson said it wouldnât have been the same.
âWhen I look back now â I know I hear Willie say it was the best time of his life,â Kristofferson said in 2005. âFor me, I wish I was more aware how short of a time it would be. It was several years, but it was still like the blink of an eye. I wish I would have cherished each moment.â
Among the four, only Nelson is now alive.
Kristofferson's sharp-tongued political lyrics sometimes hurt his popularity, especially in the late 1980s. His 1989 album, âThird World Warriorâ was focused on Central America and what United States policy had wrought there, but critics and fans werenât excited about the overtly political songs.
He said during a 1995 interview with the AP he remembered a woman complaining about one of the songs that began with killing babies in the name of freedom.
âAnd I said, âWell, what made you mad â the fact that I was saying it or the fact that weâre doing it? To me, they were getting mad at me âcause I was telling them what was going on.â
As the son of an Air Force General, he enlisted in the Army in the 1960s because it was expected of him.
âI was in ROTC in college, and it was just taken for granted in my family that Iâd do my service,â he said in a 2006 AP interview. âFrom my background and the generation I came up in, honor and serving your country were just taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.â
Hollywood may have saved his music career. He still got exposure through his film and television appearances even when he couldnât afford to tour with a full band.
Kristoffersonâs first role was in Dennis Hopperâs âThe Last Movie,â in 1971.
He had a fondness for Westerns, and would use his gravelly voice to play attractive, stoic leading men. He was Burstyn's ruggedly handsome love interest in âAlice Doesnât Live Here Anymoreâ and a tragic rock star in a rocky relationship with Streisand in âA Star Is Born,â a role echoed by Bradley Cooper in the 2018 remake.
He was the young title outlaw in director Sam Peckinpahâs 1973 âPat Garrett and Billy the Kid," a truck driver for the same director in 1978âs âConvoy," and a corrupt sheriff in director John Sayles' 1996, âLone Star.â He also starred in one of Hollywood biggest financial flops, âHeavenâs Gate,â a 1980 Western that ran tens of millions of dollars over budget.
And in a rare appearance in a superhero movie, he played the mentor of Snipes' vampire hunter in âBlade.â
He described in a 2006 AP interview how he got his first acting gigs when he performed in Los Angeles.
âIt just happened that my first professional gig was at the Troubadour in L.A. opening for Linda Rondstadt,â Kristofferson said. âRobert Hilburn (Los Angeles Times music critic) wrote a fantastic review and the concert was held over for a week,â Kristofferson said. âThere were a bunch of movie people coming in there, and I started getting film offers with no experience. Of course, I had no experience performing either.â
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Hall reported from Nashville. AP National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosanne Cash.
Andrew Dalton And Kristin M. Hall, The Associated Press
