Jason
2024-09-29 22:53:26 UTC
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.
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.