Kris Kristofferson, Singer-Songwriter and Actor, Dies at 88

[Jason]

https://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2024-09-29/kris-kristofferson-singer-songwriter-and-actor-dies-at-88

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft
writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar
and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii on Saturday, family
spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
No cause was given. He was 88.

Starting in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote such
classics standards as “Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down,” “Help Me Make it
Through the Night,” "For the Good Times" and "Me and Bobby McGee."
Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his songs were best
known as performed by others, whether Ray Price crooning “For the Good
Times” or Janis Joplin belting out “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Kristofferson, who could recite William Blake from memory, wove
intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into
popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks and
counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new breed
of country songwriters along with such peers as Willie Nelson, John
Prine and Tom T. Hall.

"There's no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson," Nelson
said during a November 2009 award ceremony for Kristofferson held by
BMI. "Everything he writes is a standard and we're all just going to
have to live with that."

As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and
Ellen Burstyn, but also had a fondness for shoot-out Westerns and cowboy
dramas.

[Invalid]

Post by Jason
Kristofferson died at his home in Maui, Hawaii on Saturday, family
spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email. He was 88.

Suffered for years thanks to incompetent doctors.
https://www.grunge.com/1548839/tragedy-of-kris-kristofferson-explained/

[Adam H. Kerman]

Post by Jason
. . .
As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbara Streisand and
Ellen Burstyn, but also had a fondness for shoot-out Westerns and cowboy
dramas.

Remake Number 3 of What Price Hollywood? was a vile movie.

[Louis Epstein]

Post by Jason
https://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2024-09-29/kris-kristofferson-singer-songwriter-and-actor-dies-at-88
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft
writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar
and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.

Famous long enough ago that I became aware of him from an
article in Look magazine.

-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.

[bryan_styble]

As I'm sure you know, Adam, that third iteration of "A Star is Born"
came close--though it's unclear HOW close--to having Presley in the role
that ultimately went to the late Rhodes Scholar. (Pretty sure Elvis
never studied at Oxford University, but I'll have to check on that one.)

You see, I've always considered the breakdown in negotiations--not sure
if Colonel Tom thwarted the casting, or someone or something else--to
have been a HUGE lost opportunity for Presley, who by career
circumstance (if not acting acumen) was simply IDEAL for the part.

So, Adam: had that Streisand/Presley version come to pass, IF DONE WELL
(including Presley not sounding like he was just reciting his lines,
something never a prob for skilled actress Streisand), would it have
rehabilitated Presley's late-career reputation? (As we all remember,
Presley had been seriously tarnished by all those vocally-half-hearted,
jump-suited, tour concerts through the mid-'70s.)

[Yeah, I'm asking here for pure speculation on your part, for sure. But
your postings suggest to me your aesthetic judgment is sound, so I AM
curious about a question I've pondered, no exaggeration, for decades
now; indeed, I was even wondering about it on and off all Thursday,
August 18, 1977...after having driven five hours down I-55 from St.
Louis to Memphis to witness first-hand all the Presley funeral hoopla.]

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

[Lenona]

I only saw five of his movies - two from the 1970s, two by John Sayles,
and one from 2009.


From "The Illustrated Who's Who of the Cinema" (1983), by Lloyd, Fuller
and Desser:

"A tall, often bearded Texan with a warm smile and an old-fashioned
blend of sexuality and niceness, Kristofferson is like an urbanized
Huckleberry Finn."