Kris Kristofferson, Country Music Legend and ‘A Star Is Born’ Leading Man, Dies at 88
Kris Kristofferson, who attained success as both a groundbreaking country music singer-songwriter and a Hollywood film and TV star, died Saturday at home in Maui, Hawaii. No cause of death was given, but he was described as passing away peacefully while surrounded by family. He was 88.
Said his family in a statement, “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. 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 statement was offered on behalf of Kristofferson’s wife, Lisa; his eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake; and his seven grandchildren.
Kyle Young, the CEO of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, said, “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. Kris’s heroes included the prize fighter Muhammad Ali, the great poet William Blake, and the ‘Hillbilly Shakespeare,’ Hank Williams. He lived his life in a way that honored and exemplified the values of each of those men, and he leaves a righteous, courageous and resounding legacy that rings with theirs.”
Kristofferson had already spent several modestly successful years in Music City’s song mills by the time he broke through as the author of such No. 1 country hits as “For the Good Times” (Ray Price, 1970), “Sunday Morning Coming Down” (Johnny Cash, 1970) and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” (Sammi Smith, 1971). His song “Me and Bobby McGee” became a posthumous No. 1 pop hit for his former paramour Janis Joplin in 1971.
His first four albums for Monument Records, which showcased his rough, unmannered singing and poetically crafted, proto-outlaw country songs, all reached the country top 10, and 1972’s “Jesus Was a Capricorn,” which contained his No. 1 country hit “Why Me,” topped the country LP chart. He won three Grammys: for best country song (“Help Me Make It Through the Night”) and a pair of duets with Rita Coolidge, to whom he was married from 1973-80.
Bill C. Malone noted in “Country Music, U.S.A.,” the standard history of the genre, “Kristofferson’s lyrics spoke often of loneliness, alienation and pain, but they also celebrated freedom and honest relationships, and in intimate, sensuous language that had been rare to country music.”
Kristofferson could be the first to knock his own voice. “I don’t think I’m that good a singer,” he said in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview. “I can’t think of a song that I’ve written that I don’t like the way somebody else sings it better.” But with many of his signature songs, fans would not have wanted them channeled through any other voice, least of all one that smoothed out their raw sentiments.
The musician’s lean good looks and laid-back persona made him a natural for pictures. He made his first mark on screen in Bill L. Norton’s 1972 feature “Cisco Pike,” in which he played the titular character, an L.A. musician and drug dealer under the thumb of a corrupt narcotics cop (Gene Hackman); the feature also employed several Kristofferson songs on its soundtrack.
Through the ‘70s, he enjoyed a rising movie profile, playing the romantic lead opposite Susan Anspach in Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love” (1973) and Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (1974). In 1977, co-billed with Barbra Streisand, he won a Golden Globe Award as a dissolute rock star in the third version of “A Star is Born.”
However, he hit hard bumps in Hollywood in a couple of legendarily troubled productions. He co-starred with James Coburn in Sam Peckinpah’s ambitious 1973 Western “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” appearing as the notorious outlaw; the film became a notorious cause célebre after it was taken out of the director’s hands and recut by MGM. (Kristofferson went on to star in Peckinpah’s “Convoy” (1978), based on C.W. McCall’s CB radio-themed hit; while the film made money, the actor’s notices were dismal.)
Kristofferson’s acting career never completely recovered after he starred in Michael Cimino’s 1980 Western epic “Heaven’s Gate.” Dogged by pre-release chatter about cost overruns and Cimino’s on-set perfectionism, the film received devastating reviews, and was almost immediately withdrawn from release and drastically re-edited; United Artists – which was sold to MGM by Transamerica in the wake of the debacle — wrote off the picture’s entire $44 million cost a week after its premiere. Its title became virtually synonymous with Tinseltown excess and hubris.
In the face of withering criticism, Kristofferson always maintained a staunch defense of “Heaven’s Gate,” which later gained critical respect. In a 2012 video interview included in the Criterion Collection’s home video release of the film, he said, “Both Michael and his movie deserved better… [it] deserved being treated like a work of art, and not as some failed economic venture.”