Singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has passed away at the age of 88. He died Saturday, September 28, 2024 at his home in Maui, Hawaii. No cause of death has been given.
His poignant lyrics made him a country music legend, and his rugged good looks led to 1970s Hollywood movie star fame. His film career encompassed a surprising 118 films, including a number of genre films that qualify him as a geek icon as well.
He was born June 22, 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson. His paternal grandparents were Swedish, and his father was a United States Air Force general who pushed his son to a military career. He ultimately joined the United States Army and achieved the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot, which served him well later.
In 1965, he resigned his commission to pursue songwriting. He had just been assigned to become a teacher at USMA West Point. He got a job sweeping floors in Nashville studios. There he met Johnny Cash, who initially took some of his songs but ignored them. He got Cash’s attention when he landed his helicopter in Cash’s yard and gave him some more tapes. Cash then recorded Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, which was voted the 1970 Song of the Year by the Country Music Association.
Kris was noted for being a heavy drinker and lost his helicopter pilot job when he passed out at the controls, and his drinking ruined his marriage to singer Rita Coolidge, when he was reaching a bottle and half of Jack Daniels daily. He gave up alcohol in 1976.
He was best known as a country/western singer/songwriter. He wrote such popular songs as “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” and “For the Good Times.”
Bard and Scholar
You probably knew Kris Kristofferson as a singer and actor, forming with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, the famous Highwaymen, but you might not know that Dr. Kristofferson was a modern-day Renaissance man. He played the guitar and the harmonica. He sang. He composed. He was a Rhodes scholar. He attended Pomona College in Clairemont, California, the alma mater of former president Barack H. Obama and science fiction author Vera Nazarian. He graduated from Pomona College with a BA in literature, summa cum laude in 1968. As a Rhodes scholar he went on to Oxford University in the IK, where he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy in English literature from Oxford’s Merton College. In 1973 he received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pomona College. As a college student, he had essays published in The Atlantic Monthly, one of the most prestigious magazines in the United States.
Geek Cred
Kristofferson’s career as an actor started with his first film in 1971, with the role of the minstrel wrangler in The Last Movie. His geek cred as an actor begins in 1982 with an uncredited role in The Last Horror Film. In Millennium (1989) he played Bill Smith. He played the role of vampire hunter Abraham Whistler in the pre-MCU trilogy, Blade (1998), Blade II (2002) and Blade: Trinity (2004). In the remake of Planet of the Apes (2001), Dr. Kristofferson played Karubi, Daena’s father. He played Mace Montana in 1998’s Bit Top Pee-wee.
Other movie roles included David in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Billy the Kid in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Sheriff James Averill in Heaven’s Gate (9xx). He played Orin Hanner Sr. in Fire Down Below (1997). Many consider his best movie role to have been John Norman Howard in the remake of A Star is Born (1976) opposite Barbara Streisand, a role for which he won a Golden Globe Award for that performance. His worst had to have been the historically bad Heaven’s Gate in 1998.
Awards and Honors
He was nominated for fourteen Grammy Awards and won five.
- In 1970 he won the CMA Award for Song of the Year for “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”
- 1n 1971 Dr. Kristofferson won a Grammy for Best Country Song for “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”
- 1974, Dr. Kristofferson was a BAFTA nominee for Most Promising Newcomer in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
- Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture -Musical or Comedy for A Star is Born (1976).
- 1985 he won the Academy of Country Music Award for Single of the Year for Highwayman.”
- Also in 1985, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
- In 1999, he was nominated for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Supporting Actor – Horror for Blade
- In 2003, he won the Americana Music Honors and Awards’ Free Speech Award.
- In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
- In 2005, he won Academy of Country Music Award’s Griffie Stone Pioneer Award.
- At the 2003 American Veterans Awards ceremony. he received the Veteran of the Year Award.
- In 2007, Dr. Kristofferson won the CMT’s Jonny Cash Award
- In 2013, he won the Academy of Country Music Award’s Poets award.
- In 2014 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
- He was granted a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Country Music Association in 2019.
Voice Work
In Best Friend From Heaven (2017), he voiced Gabriel. In the Christmas cartoon The Star (2017), he voiced the old donkey. He was narrator for the TV show The Haunted Gun. He voiced Talon in Disney’s Snow Buddies (2008). In the video game Gun, he voiced Ned White. In Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock (1998), he was the voice of Doc. He was in the video games Fallout: New Vegas, and he guested on Disney’s Handy Manny.
That is not Kris Kristofferson as the lion character Clay Calloway in the film Sing 2, though the character is clearly modeled on him. Bono provided the voice of the lion, and the storyline in the film echoed some of Kristofferson’s life, but no, that wasn’t him.
Personal Life
Dr. Kristofferson grew up in a military family. Because his father was an officer in the US Army Air Corps, the family moved a lot. By the time he retired, his father was a major general in the US Air Force. Dr, Kristofferson joined the US Army himself. He became a helicopter pilot and completed Ranger training. After finishing his tour of duty in West Germany ended, he resigned his commission in the army, so he could concentrate on his musical career.
Dr. Kristofferson married three times and had eight children. In 1960 he married Frances M. Beer. They divorced in 1969. In 1973 he married singer Rita Coolidge. They divorced in 1980. Finally, he married Lisa Meyers in 1983. They were together until his death in 2024.
Dr. Kristofferson is survived by his wife, Lisa; his eight children, Tracy, Kris Jr., Casey, Jesse, Jody, John, Kelly and Blake, and his seven grandchildren.
Captain Kristofferson, we thank you for your service, and we thank you for your songs. Dr. Kristofferson had a long, full life. He died peacefully in his own home. Singer, songwriter, scholar, soldier, actor, husband, father, grandfather, boxer, rugby player. He won the admiration of hundreds of thousands of fans, and the respect of his peers.
His fellow Highwayman, Willie Nelson said back in 2009: “There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson. Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”
Susan Macdonald is the author of the children's book "R is for Renaissance Faire", as well as 26 short stories, mostly fantasy in "Alternative Truths", "Swords and Sorceress #30", Swords &Sorceries Vols. 1, 2, & 5, "Cat Tails" "Under Western Stars", and "Knee-High Drummond and the Durango Kid". Her articles have appeared on SCIFI.radio's web site, in The Inquisitr, and in The Millington Star. She enjoys Renaissance Faires (see book above), science fiction conventions, Highland Games, and Native American pow-wows.
The man will indeed be missed, and I learned a lot from this article. Among other things, I found I had connections to Kris Kristofferson I didn’t know about. (Studied in the same area, had connections to the same college, wrote for the same company, etc.) I knew we both had connections to Willie Nelson, but knew little of the rest.
We will miss you, Kris!