US singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson, a country music legend who notably hit the silver screen opposite Barbra Streisand in A Star is Born, has died at the age of 88, his family has announced.
No cause of death was given in a statement issued by the family of the artist, a Country Music Hall of Fame honouree and Grammy winner known for writing hits like Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down and Me and Bobby McGee.
A regular visitor to Ireland over the years, Kristofferson performed solo for decades but also formed the supergroup The Highwaymen alongside Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.
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In film, the Golden Globe winner was also known for his appearances as Whistler alongside Wesley Snipes in the vampire trilogy Blade.
“It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, 28 September, at home” In Hawaii, the family said in a statement carried on his official Facebook page.
“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.”
It was Kristofferson who comforted Sinéad O’Connor at a Bob Dylan tribute concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden in October 1992 when the crowd booed her amid the fallout from the Dubliner tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live the previous week.
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Singing and acting
Born on 22 June, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson moved frequently as a child because his father was in the US military. He attended Pomona College in California and went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar, according to his official website.
He joined the army, attaining the rank of captain, but was still pursuing his interest in music and songwriting. He was offered a teaching job at West Point but decided instead to head to Nashville, where he began to submit songs for others to record.
He finally signed his own record deal and put out a first album in 1970. He would earn success both with his own voice and by providing tunes for other hitmakers.
Johnny Cash took Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down to the top of the charts, and Ray Price did the same with For the Good Times.
Me and Bobby McGee became a posthumous hit for Janis Joplin, who once dated Kristofferson.
“You can look at Nashville pre-Kris and post-Kris, because he changed everything,” Bob Dylan is quoted on Kristofferson’s website as saying.
Kristofferson would go on to pivot to acting, where his good looks led to work with directors Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorsese.
Then came the massive success of A Star is Born (1976), in which he played a washed-up rock singer who discovers a new talent (Streisand).
He won the Golden Globe for best actor for the film, a remake of a 1937 movie that was again redone in the 1950s with Judy Garland, and later in 2018 with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
As a solo artist, his album output tapered off after the 1980s. The Highwaymen recorded three popular albums over a decade, and he collaborated often with Nelson in the years that followed.
Kristofferson toured often until the Covid-19 pandemic, though he suffered from memory loss and announced in early 2021 that he had retired from music.
The singer-songwriter is survived by his third wife Lisa and his eight children.