Singer and actor Kris Kristofferson died on Saturday, September 28, 2024. In a statement, his family said that he died at home surrounded by family; they did not give a cause of death. He was 88 years old.
Kristofferson was a country music singer and songwriter who had a signature rough voice and he wrote/sang poetic outlaw country style songs. As an actor, he starred opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born.
He was born on June 2, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas, then his family moved a lot during his father’s military service. Kristofferson earned a Bachelor’s degree in English from Pomona College and studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.
His music career took off in the early 1970s when he wrote the songs “For the Good Times” (sung by Ray Price), “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (for Johnny Cash), “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (for Sammi Smith), and the pop-rock hit “Me and Bobby McGee” for Janis Joplin.
Four of his early albums were on the country Top 10 list, and his song “Why Me” from Jesus was a Capricorn reached No. 1 on country charts. He won Grammys for “Help Me Make It Through the Night” and for the duets “From the Bottle to the Bottom” and “Lover Please” with his wife Rita Coolidge.
He and Willie Nelson recorded the bestselling album Sings Kristofferson in which Nelson covered some of Kristofferson’s hits. The pair were joined by Cash and Waylon Jennings to form an outlaw country supergroup, releasing the No. 1 album, Highwayman. The quartet, known as the Highwaymen, released two more albums.
Some of Kristofferson’s later album successes were A Moment of Forever, This Old Road, Closer to the Bone, and Feeling Mortal.
His first notable acting role was playing a musician and drug dealer in 1972’s Cisco Pike. He was in Blume in Love, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Heaven’s Gate, Songwriter, Lone Star, and he played vampire hunter Abraham Whistler in Blade.
Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2015.
