Kris Kristofferson Obituary

American superstar like no other, Kris Kristofferson, the legendary country western songwriter, performer and actor, has died. A family spokesperson said Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui. He was 88 years old.

Few careers are as steeped in legend as Kristofferson’s. He was a fly on the wall who watched Bob Dylan record Blonde on blonde as a janitor at Columbia Records and landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s backyard. But any one of the monumental moments of Kristofferson’s career would amount to the greatest moment of all the others. Born in Brownsville, Texas on June 22, 1936, Kristofferson was raised for a military career, but he soon realized that no career could contain him. After the family settled in California, he attended Pomona College and began publishing short stories in The Atlantic. At the same time, his Rugby team appears in Sports Illustratedand he was an amateur Golden Gloves boxer. Kristofferson became a Rhodes Scholar and studied literature at Oxford University. After Oxford, he joined the army in 1960, becoming a pilot and reaching the rank of captain.

He left the military in 1965 and moved to Nashville, working as a janitor and helicopter pilot for oil rigs. Cleaning the floor of Columbia Records, he watched Dylan record Blonde on blonde and started taking music more seriously. His first album, 1970s Kristoffersonincluded his breakthrough song, “Me And Bobby McGee,” which became a No. 1 hit. 1 hit for Janis Joplin. Later that year, Kristofferson put his piloting skills to good use and landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s backyard to get his attention. Cash decided to record “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and Kristofferson would win Songwriter of the Year at the CMA Awards. In 1971, Kristofferson would be nominated for four Grammys, including Song of the Year and Best Country Song, for “Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through The Night.”

To say that Kristofferson’s recording output has been prolific would be an understatement. By the end of the ’70s, he had released more than 10 albums, including the soundtrack to A star is bornhis 1976 megawatt Blockbuster co-directed by Barbra Streisand, which won him a Golden Globe. The soundtrack of A star is born spent six weeks at no. 1 of Billboard. In the mid-1980s, he formed the country music supergroup The Highwayman with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings. The quartet released three albums between 1985 and 1995.

Kristofferson’s transition to acting has been equally charming. He made his debut in Dennis Hopper’s Maniac Latest movie in 1971, he quickly landed his first real role in Cisco Pikeopposite Gene Hackman, Karen Black and Harry Dean Stanton. Soon he began working with legendary Western author Sam Peckinpah. He played one of the most emblematic outlaws in the West for the director in Pat Garrett and Billy the KidPeckinpah’s underrated masterpiece that would become a watermark of the genre. For his part, as Billy the Kid, Kristofferson uses his natural rockstar charisma to set the template for the modern Western villain, as irresistibly cool as he is sadistically treacherous. Kristofferson continued with Peckinpah Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia et Convoy.

“Well, Sam asked me to come talk to him. Sam Peckinpah. When I went up there, it was a little intimidating. He was throwing knives at a little wooden door he had in his office, an old wooden door,” Kristofferson said. Club AV in 2010. “And he was throwing knives at it and stabbing them. And I don’t know if he was doing it to get my respect or my attention, but either way, he ended up getting me into it. And man, he was definitely one of the directors I respected the most at the time. It went well.

There was no shortage of luminaries hoping to work with Kristofferson. Paul Mazursky hired him Blume in love. For his first major studio work, Martin Scorsese cast him as the love interest of Alice no longer lives here. Michael Cimino included Kristofferson in his studio crater masterpiece Heaven’s Gate.

As the lines on his face deepened and his deep voice grew hoarser, he became an aged elder statesman of the world. Lame trilogy. But his most important role is that of the central point of John Sayles’ film. Lone Starplaying a dead sheriff with a shady past. “Kris Kristofferson is not just from Texas; he’s from the border,” Sayles said Club AV last year. “He came from a military family. He lived in the Brownsville area. Matamoros, this area. I’ve never seen him play a really bad guy, but he has that voice and presence.

There were few things Kris Kristofferson hadn’t done in his 88 years. He hosted the 24th episode of Saturday evening live and sang his hit “Help Me Make It Through The Night” with Miss Piggy on The puppet show. Throughout his career, he has won four Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

Kristofferson had eight children from three marriages. After divorcing his singer Rita Coolidge, with whom he had recorded several records, he married Lisa Meyers in 1983. He is survived by Meyers, his eight children and seven grandchildren.