What happened
Kris Kristofferson, an Oxford-educated Rhodes Scholar and Army veteran who wrote hit songs for Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash before starring in Hollywood movies, died Saturday at his home in Maui, a family spokesperson said Sunday evening. He was 88 and no cause of death was offered.
Who said what
Kristofferson, “who could recite William Blake from memory, wove intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music,” PBS said. His “rugged brand of sensitivity brought him acclaim as a poet laureate of intimacy and longing,” The Washington Post said. In 1970, the year Kristofferson released his first album, three of his songs hit No. 1 on the country charts: “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” sung by Cash, his friend and mentor; Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee,” her last recording before her fatal overdose; and Sammi Smith’s version of “Help Me Make it Through The Night.”
A gig opening for Linda Ronstadt in Los Angeles led to a second career in acting, where Kristofferson won a Golden Globe for 1976’s “A Star is Born” and had starring roles in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” “Lone Star” and the “Blade” vampire-slayer franchise. His music career rebounded when he began touring with Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings in the supergroup The Highwaymen between 1985 and 1995, and despite health problems, he “remained active into his 80s,” The New York Times said.
What next?
“There’s no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Nelson — the last living Highwayman — said in 2009 at a BMI award ceremony for Kristofferson. “Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that.”