Kris Kristofferson, Country Music Icon, Actor, Dies: ‘Creativity Is God-Given’
By Movieguide® Staff
Country music singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii. He was 88.
“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,” his family announced in a statement. “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 singer is survived by his wife, Lisa; his eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake; and his seven grandchildren.
“Kris Kristofferson believed to his core that creativity is God-given, and that those who ignore or deflect such a holy gift are doomed to failure and unhappiness. He preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul, and then he created a body of work that gave voice not only to his soul but to ours,” Kyle Young, the CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said.
No cause of death was given.
“Kristofferson’s resume was eclectic,” said ABC News, “Rhodes scholar, U.S. Army veteran, pilot, Golden Gloves boxer and award-winning actor.”
Born on June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson would go on to earn a master’s from Oxford and join the Army to serve as a helicopter pilot, writing songs on the side, before moving to Nashville.
His career struggled to take off until “established stars like Tom T. Hall, Ray Price, Roger Miller, Ray Stevens and [Johnny] Cash recorded his songs. Cash’s hit rendition of ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’ helped it win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year trophy in 1970, the same year Kristofferson released his debut solo album.”
CNN reported that he wrote “classics standards as ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,’ ‘Help Me Make it Through the Night,’ ‘For the Good Times’ and ‘Me and Bobby McGee.’” Though a singer himself, other artists including Ray Price and Janis Joplin performed his songs.
An A-list actor as well, Kristofferson starred “opposite Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, starred opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 A STAR IS BORN, and acted alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s BLADE in 1998,” AP News reported.
Throughout his decades-long career, the singer-songwriter released “18 studio albums and appear[ed] in dozens of theatrical and television movies between the 1970s and the 2010s. He won three competitive Grammys from 13 nominations and was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe.”
Keep Kristofferson’s family and friends in your prayers as they mourn his death.
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