Grammy-Winning Musician & ‘A Star Is Born’ Actor Kris Kristofferson Dies at 88
Kris Kristofferson, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and actor known for movies including A Star is Born and Blade, has died at 88.
In a statement, Kristofferson’s family said “It is with a heavy heart that we share the news our husband/father/grandfather, Kris Kristofferson, passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 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.”
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Born in 1936, Kristofferson was an outstanding student who published short stories in The Atlantic Monthly while still in his teens, excelled in academics and athletics at Pomona College, and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. But after a brief period in the U.S. Army following his graduation, Kristofferson turned his sights to his musical dreams, joining the country scene in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kristofferson quickly made a name writing songs for others, including the #1 Janis Joplin hit, “Me and Bobby McGee.” Kristofferson also formed a close working relationship with Johnny Cash; Kristofferson’s song “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” was a #1 hit for Cash in 1969, and Cash introduced Kristofferson at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival, a concert that was one of Kristofferson’s major professional breakthroughs.
Kristofferson picked up Grammys throughout the ’70s, a decade when he also began his acting career, starring in films like 1973’s Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid and 1974’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. But his major acting breakthrough came with the 1976 remake of A Star is Born, where he played a rock star in decline opposite Barbra Streisand as his lover, a musician at the start of her career. The film won him a Golden Globe for Best Actor.
In the ’80s, Kristofferson joined forces with Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to form the supergroup The Highwaymen. Their debut self-titled album went platinum.
Though he never stopped acting, Kristofferson was once again in higher-profile films in the late ’90s and early 2000s, including the 1996 John Sayles film Lone Star. But he made his biggest Hollywood splash of the decade in a far different type of film than the slice-of-life dramas he’d starred in in the ’70s: he co-starred in the 1998 movie Blade, as well as its two sequels, playing a mentor to Wesley Snipes‘ super-heroic vampire.
He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004, received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2014, and officially retired in 2020.
Kristofferson had numerous health issues throughout his life, including undergoing coronary bypass surgery in 1999. In 2013, Kristofferson revealed that he had struggled with memory loss, and was misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s; in reality, he had been afflicted with Lyme disease.
No cause of death has yet been given. Kristofferson leaves behind a wife, Lisa Meyers, whom he married in 1983, and eight children.
Co-stars and fans have begun posting tributes to the singer.
Sad to hear of Kris Kristofferson’s passing. He was an inspiration to me and I was fortunate to get to know him on the set of “Outlaw Justice” that we filmed in Spain in 1998. My heartfelt condolences go out to Kris’s wife Lisa and all of his family, friends and fans. pic.twitter.com/9ahARfnNLD
— Travis Tritt (@TravisTritt) September 29, 2024
Where Are They Now - The Seventies
June 2022
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