Kris Kristofferson, A Star Is Born Legend, Dead At 88 – The List

Kris Kristofferson died on September 28, per a statement from his family on Instagram. “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.” 

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The late star was born June 22, 1936, in Brownsville, Texas. As part of an Air Force family, he was used to moving around a lot, but the family finally settled down in San Mateo, California, per PBS. From a young age, he took to country music, writing his first song at the age of 11. After graduating from Pomona College with a degree in creative writing, Kristofferson was offered a Rhodes Scholarship to attend Oxford University. He left Oxford with a Masters in English Literature. 

He joined the U.S. Army, earning the rank of captain by 1965. Just before he was set to go to West Point to teach English, however, he went to Nashville for two weeks. “And it was just heaven to me. The music business in Nashville at the time was just two streets: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Avenues South. And all the people there, they just loved the creative act of songwriting and they loved good songs, whether they wrote ’em or not, you know? It wasn’t for money or fame, or anything like that. And so, at the end of the two weeks, I decided to resign my commission and come back to Nashville,” he said (via PBS).

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Kris Kristofferson’s parents were upset by his choice to leave a career in the Army and become a singer and songwriter. From that point on, their relationship became strained. He reportedly did not speak to his mother for 20 years (per Biography). Kristofferson did not initially come into his own as a performer. However, two of the songs he wrote charted, including “Viet Nam Blues” and “Jody and the Kid.” 

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The musician worked diligently for four years in Nashville and entered his 30s working as a janitor at CBS’ recording studio in exchange for access to recording sessions by some of the most prominent musicians of that era, including Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan. He wrote “Sunday Morning Coming Down” for Johnny Cash, “The Taker” was recorded by Waylon Jennings, and Janis Joplin recorded “Me and Bobby McGee.” Joplin’s version would become her biggest hit (per Biography). 

“All my heroes ended up being close friends. I find it kind of amazing that Johnny Cash and Willie [Nelson] and Waylon [Jennings] have been friends,” Kristofferson said, per Country Music Television. In 1971, three of the five Grammy Award nominations for Best Country Song were written by Kristofferson, as were two of the five nominations for Song of the Year. He won his first Grammy for 1971’s best country song, “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” per Grammy.

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Capitalizing on his good looks and talent, Kris Kristofferson was lured into the world of acting. His first role was as a singer in 1971’s “The Last Movie,” directed by Dennis Hopper. He then played Billy the Kid in the 1973 film “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” and the romantic lead in Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” He earned a Golden Globe for his performance as an aging alcoholic musician in 1976’s “A Star Is Born” opposite Barbra Streisand (via IMDb). Because of a publishing issue, Kristofferson couldn’t perform his own material for the role of a washed-up rock star. He once told The Sun of that period in his life where real life and reel life overlapped, “Everybody was trying to keep me from drinking but I snuck a couple of drinks. There was no way I’d have gotten out there without them.”

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“Doctor said my liver was the size of a football and that if I didn’t quit, I was gonna kill myself. I had a new little daughter, so I quit. At the time I just went cold turkey. It was probably harder on the people around me than on myself,” he said to The Guardian. Kristofferson would have a successful acting career with the films “Lone Star,” “Blade,” “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries,” “Sayles’s Limbo,” “Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes,” “Chelsea Walls,” “He’s Just Not That into You,” “Dolphin Tale,” “Joyful Noise,” and “Traded” (via IMDb).

In 1985, Kris Kristofferson started a band with fellow country musicians Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson, and the quartet billed themselves The Highwaymen. The idea originated one year earlier when the four men were in Switzerland filming a Johnny Cash Christmas TV show. The group released three albums over the course of a decade, starting with “Highwayman” in 1985. “Highwayman 2” came in 1990 and “The Road Goes On Forever” followed in 1995.

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The Willie Nelson Museum reported that the band got into legal trouble for the use of the name, however. Members of a 1960s folk group that had called themselves the “Highwaymen” sued the group in 1990. The lawsuit was eventually dropped when the older version of the band was invited to open a show for the latter incarnation of the group in Los Angeles, a move which seemed to smooth things over.

Kris Kristofferson wed his high school sweetheart Fran Beer in 1960. They were married until 1969 and had two children. In 1973, the singer wed Rita Coolidge and they had one daughter. In 1983, Kristofferson married Lisa Meyers with whom he had five children, per Country Thang Daily.

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Meyers stood by Kristofferson’s side when he was mistakenly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Further testing revealed that the singer was instead battling Lyme Disease. Meyers believed that he was infected with Lyme anywhere from 14 to 30 years prior due to the fact that he had chronic muscle spasms. “The more we can get Kris to laugh, the healthier he is. Being on the road, the laughter, the music. It’s great medicine. And I understand that when you have Lyme disease, your quality of life will vary with each different person. You have to just do the best you can,” Meyers said of her husband’s journey, via The Huffington Post.

Kris Kristofferson is survived by Meyers and his children Tracy, Kris, Casey, Jesse, Jody, Johnny, Kelly, and Blake.

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