his life as an actor in five notable films

Died on September 28 at the age of 88, singer Kris Kristofferson also leaves behind quite a career as an actor. He was a cowboy, drunkard or bastard for Martin Scorsese, Michael Cimino or Alan Rudolph…

PPopular country singer in the United States, Kris Kristofferson, who died on September 28, 2024 at the age of 88, was better known in France as an actor. A fellow traveler of the New Hollywood, he appeared in around fifty films in five decades of intermittent presence on the screen during which his handsome, dark physique and his powerful deep voice worked wonders. A look back at his career in five notable films.

“Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”, by Sam Peckinpah (1973)

Screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer wrote the role of Billy the Kid for Bob Dylan. It was Kris Kristofferson who, then an almost beginner actor (his only experience was participation in filming under various substances of The Last Movie, by his friend Dennis Hopper), was imposed on MGM by Sam Peckinpah. If the singer’s inexperience will force the director to multiply the takes, the result is superb: Kristofferson is irresistible as an insolent youthful scoundrel with a dazzling smile opposite James Coburn, poignant as a former accomplice who became a disillusioned sheriff. The death of Billy/Kris in the early morning, half naked after a night of love, is as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. Kristofferson will make two other films with Peckinpah: for a supporting role in Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) and headlining in The Convoy (1978).

“Alice is no longer here”, by Martin Scorsese (1974)

It’s a little-known but superb film from the author of Taxi Driver, very far from his baroque and violent universe. Ellen Burstyn plays a young widow who dreams of becoming a cabaret singer and falls in love with a drinking ranch owner. This bar pillar is Kris Kristofferson, as funny as he is touching, who will teach the guitar to Alice’s turbulent son in the hope of seducing her…

“Heaven’s Gate”, by Michael Cimino (1980)

The monumental (and oh so unfair…) failure of Cimino’s operatic western destroyed the career of its author but, also, probably, the rise in Hollywood of its main performer. James Averill, the sheriff who gives up his star when he is asked to hand over to mercenary killers the immigrant farmers who threaten the monopoly of the rich ranchers of Wyoming, nevertheless remains Kris Kristofferson’s finest role. An idealist in love who will gradually lose all his illusions, until the final, very Proustian scene, where we understand that all the luxury in the world will never be able to erase the memory of a young prostitute who died in his arms. years ago…

“Wanda’s Café”, d’Alan Rudolph (1985)

In this magical film, all the actors have been chosen to perpetuate the memory of Hollywood stars of yesteryear. Kris Kristofferson is, thus, like a double of John Garfield through his character of a former convict who, after having killed a man, tries to regain a taste for life in the bar of his former mistress. A wise old man who has come back from everything but still wants to believe in it…

“Lone Star”, de John Sayles (1996)

Kris Kristofferson was also very good in the bastard roles. In this contemporary western by John Sayles, he first appears as… bones found in the Texas desert. They are those of Charlie Wade, the former local sheriff, who died thirty-seven years earlier in circumstances that remained mysterious. The investigation carried out by his distant successor will reveal to what extent the lawman was a complete scumbag, which Kristofferson embodies, in the flashbacks, with a terrifying naturalness. John Sayles will call on him again to play a “bad guy”, an unscrupulous businessman this time, in Silver City (2009).