Kris Kristofferson, a songwriter who became a country star and A-list actor, died at his home on Maui surrounded by family on Saturday, a spokesperson said in an statement.
Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.
Kristofferson died at his home on Maui, Hawaii, surrounded by family on Saturday, a spokesperson said in an statement. He was 88.
Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native wrote such classics standards as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make it Through the Night.” Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”
He also starred opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 “A Star Is Born”, and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s “Blade” 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, 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, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.
