Iconic country music superstar and actor Kris Kristofferson has died. He was 88. Kristofferson passed away at home yesterday in Maui, Hawaii.
His family said 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 South Texan native and Rhodes Scholar piloted helicopters in the U.
S. Army, revived a rugby club while in college, excelled at boxing and football, and worked as a janitor at Columbia Records in Nashville before his music career took off. He wrote numerous iconic country songs including “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Sunday Mornin‘ Comin‘ Down,” “The Taker,” and “For the Good Times” which were done by artists like Janis Joplin, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.
He teamed with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson to form The Highwaymen – releasing three albums together. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985, entered the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 and was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. On the film front, he landed an Oscar nomination for best score in 1985 for Alan Rudolph’s “Songwriter” in which he starred opposite Nelson in the Nashville-set tale.
To a several generations he’s more well known for his film roles. He hit it big in the 1970s as the love interest for Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.