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.
