Kris Kristofferson, the vibrant, trailblazing country music hitmaker who wowed audiences in the 1976 remake of “A Star Is Born,” died on Saturday at the age of 88.
The star was surrounded by his family, but no cause of death was given, Variety reported Sunday.
Just one month before his death, the Golden Globe winner put his ranch on Northern California’s Mendocino Coast on the market for $17.2 million, per The Sacramento Bee.
He announced his retirement in a 2021 statement issued by his management, revealing that he had slowly stepped back from the spotlight.
Kristofferson was known for his chart-topping 1972 song “Why Me,” and “Me & Bobby McGee,” a hit recorded by Janis Joplin shortly before her 1970 death.
Kristofferson once said his songs “come from (the) soul” and described his songwriting ability as a gift, according to PBS.
He was just as successful on the big screen.
He played vampire hunter Abraham Whistler in the 1998 horror film “Blade” and the love interest of Ellen Burstyn’s character in the 1974 drama “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” directed by Martin Scorsese.
“Blade” took off as a trilogy series, with the second installment premiering in 2002, and the third in 2004. He reprised his role as Whistler in all of the following movies, playing Blade’s mentor (Wesley Snipes).
Kristofferson was born on June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas, where he found a passion for music at a young age.
He recalled hearing country and Norteño music and songs of Mexico and southern Texas on radio stations there.
“I think it was the strongest influence in my life,” Kristofferson admitted during a 2018 appearance on New Orleans public radio station WWNO.
“I spent about 11 years down there — my first 11 — and the border music, the Mexican music, it was just heart music, and the country music was the same,” he continued. “I always felt that it was the Rio Grande Valley that got the music going in my brain.”
When Kristofferson was just 11 years old, he wrote his first song, “I Hate Your Ugly Face,” per PBS.
He said it was the closest he felt comfortable to writing a love song at the time.
In 2009, he released the ballad.
He moved around quite a bit as a child, since his father was an Army Air Corps officer, per PBS.
His family eventually made a home in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco, when he was a teen.
After graduating from high school in 1954, Kristofferson departed for Pomona College in Claremont, where he played football.
When he was just 18, he was published in The Atlantic Monthly after he won first prize in a short-story contest held by the outlet.
The two compositions were titled, “Gone Are the Days,” and “The Rock.”
He focused on writing, learning from philosopher Dr. Frederick Sontag, who encouraged him to apply for a Rhodes scholarship.
He studied literature at The University of Oxford in England, graduating in 1960, and then returned to California.
He married his high school sweetheart, Fran Beer, that same year, according to Wide Open Country. They divorced in 1969.
Kristofferson served in the military, beginning his service in 1960. He trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker in Alabama, per VA News, and later served in West Germany with 8th Infantry Division.
But even while in Germany, he continued to write songs, performing in a band with his fellow soldiers, the outlet reported.
After he returned from Germany, he was even offered a spot to teach literature at the prestigious West Point, but declined after he learned he would have to write up lesson plans, a feat that scared him.
In 1965, he moved to Nashville, where he resigned from the Army and vowed to make it in the industry — and that he did.
He worked scrappy night shifts as a janitor at Columbia Studios, and gave the country music stars demo tapes of his songs.
Per his biography on Nashville’s Walk of Fame website, the star hit a “turning point” in his career in 1969, when Johnny Cash recorded Kristofferson’s song, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” which won the 1970 Country Music Association’s song of the year trophy.
His career continued to take off, as he wrote for fellow legends like Cash, Ray Price, and Waylon Jennings, scoring a Grammy Award in 1972 for his work on “Help Me Make It Through The Night,” which was recorded by Sammi Smith.
Before her death in 1970, he briefly dated Janis Joplin, as they were introduced through their mutual friend and folk singer, Bobby Neuwirth, according to Far Out Magazine.
They played a show together in New York, and then traveled to her home in California, which ended up being a three-week long trip.
In 1976, he hit a stride in his acting career, starring as John Norman Howard, a failing rock star, in the third iteration of “A Star Is Born.”
Kristofferson played opposite Barbra Streisand, who was his love interest, Esther Hoffman.
Their performance became the third highest grossing film of 1976, according to Vox.
While other reviews of the film were mixed and it was generally disliked by critics, the piece won a Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture” in 1977, earning Kristofferson his first award in film.
In 1985, he formed country supergroup “Highwaymen” with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson, which proved to be legendary.
They released three studio albums, “Highwayman” (1985), “Highwayman 2” (1990), and “The Road Goes On Forever” (1995), per The Willie Nelson and Friends Museum.
Even after the musical group disbanded, they remained close friends, with Nelson and Kristofferson still playing music together every so often after the deaths of Jennings in 2002 and Cash in 2003.
Over the course of his career, Kristofferson received many awards and accolades.
He was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and a Johnny Mercer Award in the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame in 2006.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.
In 2016, Kristofferson was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, after doctors told him for many years that he had either Alzheimer’s or Dementia.
He suffered from debilitating memory loss, something he detailed in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone.
After three weeks of treatment for Lyme Disease, his wife said that “all of a sudden, he was back,” even though there remained both good days and bad days.
It was also during that interview when Kristofferson admitted that he “had no anxiety” about controlling his own life.
“Somehow I just slipped into it and it’s worked,” he told the outlet. “It’s not up to me – or you. I feel very lucky that [life]’s lasted so long because I’ve done so many things that could have knocked me out of it.”
“But somehow I just always have the feeling that He knows what He’s doing. It’s been good so far, and it’ll probably continue to be.”
Kristofferson always said that he wanted the the first three lines of Leonard Cohen’s song, “Bird on a Wire” on his tombstone, per Cowboys & Indians Magazine.
“Like a bird on a wire / like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried in my way to be free,” the lyrics read.
In 1973, he married singer Rita Coolidge, divorcing in 1980.
He is survived by his wife, Lisa Meyers, 66, whom he wed in 1983.
He is also survived by his eight children — Tracy Kristofferson, 61, Kris Kristofferson Jr., 55, Casey Kristofferson, 49, Jesse Kristofferson, 39, Jody Kristofferson, 38, Johnny Robert Kristofferson, 35, Kelly Marie Kristofferson, 33, and Blake Cameron Kristofferson, 29.
