Country singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson, best known for A Star Is Born and the hits “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” has died, aged 88.
He died at home in Maui, Hawaii, his family announced. “We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” they said in a statement. “Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
Kristofferson’s music career began when he moved to Nashville, where he worked as a janitor at Columbia Records. “Me and Bobby McGee” was initially recorded by Roger Miller in 1969 before Janis Joplin made it a rock classic in 1971. Kristofferson also performed “Help Me Make It Through the Night” on his 1970 self-titled album with Monument Records, but it was Sammi Smith’s version that became a hit. He would go on to write for Ray Price, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash -famously landing a heliopter in Cash’s yard to deliver a demo tape.
Kristofferson received the best country song Grammy Award for his duets with then-wife Rita Coolidge on “From the Bottle to the Bottom” and “Lover Please,” once saying, “The people that were writing the closest thing to white man’s soul music were country writers. They were writing about real life — about sex and cheating and drinking and losing and stuff like that. I figured the most honest you could be would be the most successful.”
In 1985, he teamed with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson to form The Highwaymen, and the four “outlaws” released three albums.
He enjoyed a long film career including The Last Movie, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Heaven’s Gate, Lone Star, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea and famously alongside Barbra Streisand,whom he had once dated, in the remake of A Star Is Born –he won a Golden Globe for the latter.
Other films included Semi-Tough, Blade and its sequel, Convoy, Big Top Pee-wee, Payback, Planet of the Apes, Joyful Noise and Traded.
His TV credits included The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James, Blood & Orchids, Amerika, Christmas in Connecticut, Tad, Dead Man’s Gun, and Texas Rising.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
links to content on ABC
TV Tonight
