Kris Kristofferson, country music legend and award-winning actor, dies aged 88

30 September 2024, 09:57 | Updated: 30 September 2024, 10:31

Kris Kristofferson was an Outlaw Country superstar.

Kris Kristofferson has died at the age of 88.

A country music icon and award winning actor, Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii on Saturday (September 28), surrounded by his family.

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"It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 28 at home," read a statement from his family.

"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."

The statement came from Kristofferson's wife Lisa, his eight children and his seven grandchildren.

Born in Brownsville, Texas on June 22, 1936 into a military family who settled in San Mateo California.

He was a published author of several essays and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Pomona College in 1958, the same year he earned a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford.

Kris was also accomplished at rugby union and American football in his college years.

At Oxford, Kristofferson had an early failed attempt at a music career under the name Kris Carson, despite being managed by renowned impresario Larry Parnes.

Under pressure from his family, Kristofferson joined the army, but he left in 1965 with the goal of becoming a songwriter and moved to Nashville.

Kristofferson got a job as a floor sweeper at Columbia Recording Studios and gave a tape to June Carter to give to Johnny Cash but it wasn't until he landed a helicopter in their front garden that he got their attention.

Kris Kristofferson - Me And Bobby McGee (1979)

There are several versions of that tale that have done the rounds, with Kristofferson not remembering quite the same way as the Cash family, but what is definitely true is that Cash eventually decided to record Kristofferson's 'Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down'.

It topped the Billboard Country Chart, and overnight Kristofferson became a songwriter.

He continued to write hits for other people, including 'Jody and the Kid', 'From the Bottle to the Bottom', 'Once More With Feeling', 'Your Time Is Comin', 'Me and Bobby McGee', 'Best of all Possible Worlds' and 'Darby's Castle'.

With some help from Cash, Kristofferson launched his own solo career, and he released his own Kristofferson debut album in 1970.

As the decade continued, Kristofferson continued to release albums while running a concurrent acting career

He appeared opposite Gene Hackman in Cisco Pike in 1972, starred in a trio of Sam Peckinpah films including Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and was in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

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Kristofferson won a Golden Globe for the 1976 version of A Star Is Born opposite Barbra Streisand, and while it was a commercial and critical failure, his starring turn in Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was worthy of notice.

His acting career continued in parallel with his music, and later roles included the Blade trilogy, Payback, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes and Dolly Parton's Joyful Noise.

While his recording career dipped in the mid-1970s, he had a critical resurgence with 1984's soundtrack album Music from Songwriter, featuring duets with Willie Nelson.

That relationship blossomed into The Highwaymen, the outlaw country supergroup that also featured old friend Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

The Highwaymen - Highwayman

Kristofferson was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985, and continued to record and tour until his retirement in 2021.

He was married three times. First to Frances Mavia Beer in 1981, with whom he had two children, then to fellow star Rita Coolidge in 1973, with whom he had one child, and finally to Lias Meyers in 1983, with whom he had five children.