Kris Kristofferson, a country singer-songwriter and actor who starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 A Star Is Born, has died at 88. No cause of death was given.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 28 at home. We’re all so blessed for our time with him. Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” wrote Kristofferson’s family on Instagram, asking for privacy.
As a prolific country music artist, Kristofferson racked up 13 Grammy nominations throughout his career, with three wins including for Best Country Song for the ballad “Help Me Make It Through The Night” off of his 1970 album Kristofferson. In 1984, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for Songwriter alongside Willie Nelson, with whom he also co-starred in the music drama.
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Notably portraying John Norman Howard in the heart-wrenching 1976 romantic drama opposite Streisand’s Esther Hoffman led him to a Golden Globe win for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy the following year.
Other film credits included Payback (1999), which also starred Mel Gibson, Maria Bello and Lucy Liu, as well as the original Blade trilogy with Wesley Snipes, in which he portrayed his character’s mentor, the vampire hunter Abraham Whistler. He also portrayed the romantic lead opposite Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).
Born in Brownsville, Texas on June 22, 1936, he graduated from Pomona College to Oxford University, where he received a Rhodes Scholarship to study literature. Pushed by his Air Force major general father to join the military, he served in the U.S. Army, achieved the rank of captain and became a helicopter pilot. In the mid-60s, he decided to pursue songwriting, resigning his commission to teach at the prestigious West Point academy.
While sweeping floors in Nashville’s studios, he met Johnny Cash, who initially did not pay much attention to him. Working as a commercial helicopter pilot at the time helped him in his aim to garner Cash’s collaboration, who eventually recorded Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (voted Song of the Year in 1970 by the Country Music Association) after he landed Cash’s helicopter in his yard.
Throughout his career, Kristofferson also dealt with alcoholism and substance abuse, which he stated dissolved his marriage to fellow artist Rita Coolidge, with whom he shared two Grammy wins for Best Country Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group.
Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004, garnering a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2014.
CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Kyle Young shared in a statement online: “Kris Kristofferson believed to his core that creativity is God-given, and that those who ignore or deflect such a holy gift are doomed to failure and unhappiness. He preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul, and then he created a body of work that gave voice not only to his soul but to ours. Kris’s heroes included the prize fighter Muhammad Ali, the great poet William Blake, and the ‘Hillbilly Shakespeare,’ Hank Williams. He lived his life in a way that honored and exemplified the values of each of those men, and he leaves a righteous, courageous, and resounding legacy that rings with theirs.”
In a tribute to his friend, fellow multi-Grammy-winning musician Rodney Crowell said on the eve of his Lifetime Achievement Award unveiling: “Forty-three years later, having gotten to know the man and his wife, Lisa, I feel modestly qualified to scribble down these few words framing his extraordinary musical legacy: By creating a narrative style that introduced intelligence, humor, emotional eloquence, spiritual longing, male vulnerability, and a devilish sensuality — indeed, a form of eroticism — to country music, Kris Kristofferson, without compromising the content and quality of his work, did as much to expand the mainstream accessibility of an all-too-often misunderstood art form as Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles (I’m thinking of Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music) and, more recently, Garth Brooks. And, lest we forget, the man is one hell of an accomplished actor.”
The post Kris Kristofferson Dies: Legendary Country Singer-Songwriter And ‘A Star Is Born’ Golden Globe Winner Was 88 appeared first on Deadline.
