Kris Kristofferson, an outlaw country legend and Hollywood actor, has died. According to a family statement, Kristofferson died quietly at home in Maui, surrounded by loved ones. No cause of death has been specified. Kristofferson was 88.
Kristofferson was born into a military family in Brownsville, Texas, and relocated frequently throughout his youth due to his father’s career. His family finally relocated to San Mateo, California, and he attended Pomona College, where he studied creative writing and earned first place and three other awards in The Atlantic’s collegiate short-story contest.
He continued his education as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he received a master’s degree in English literature and began producing and performing his music. Kristofferson later joined the United States Army and served as a helicopter pilot in West Germany, where he formed a soldiers’ band to perform at service clubs.
After leaving the Army in 1965, Kristofferson relocated to Nashville to pursue a musical career. Before breaking into the music industry as a songwriter, he worked as a commercial helicopter pilot and a janitor for Columbia Records.
Hits like ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ and ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down’ were famously recorded by Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash, while musicians like Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, and Gladys Knight also covered his compositions.
In 1970, he released his debut album, Kristofferson, followed by The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971. He made his acting debut in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie that same year, and he proceeded to release albums while appearing in films like Martin Scorsese, Sam Peckinpah, and John Sayles. He received a Golden Globe for his performance in 1976’s A Star Is Born, co-starring with Barbra Streisand.
Kristofferson joined Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings to form the Highwaymen, an outlaw country supergroup, in 1985. They collaborated on three albums, including Highwayman (1985), Highwayman 2 (1990), and The Road Goes on Forever (1995), and starred in Stagecoach.
Kristofferson has been honored by the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Country Music Hall of Fame. He earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. His final CD, The Cedar Creek Sessions, was released in 2016.
