Kris Kristofferson dies at 88

(Los Angeles) Kris Kristofferson, a country music star with a deft writing style and raw charisma and a leading Hollywood actor, has died.

Kristofferson lived out his final moments at his home in Maui, Hawaii, family spokeswoman Ebie McFarland said in an email.

M^me McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully, surrounded by family. No cause was given. He was 88 years old.

Beginning in the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas native wrote classic songs such as Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, Help M^e Make it Through the Night, For the Good Times And Me and Bobby McGee.

Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his compositions were performed by others, whether Ray Price with For the Good Times or Janis Joplin with Me and Bobby McGee.

He also starred alongside Ellen Burstyn in the 1974 Martin Scorsese film Alice is no longer herealongside Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born from 1976, and alongside Wesley Snipes in Blade from Marvel in 1998.

Kristofferson, who could recite the work of William Blake from memory, weaved intricate folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair, bell bottom pants and counterculture songs influenced by Bob Dylan, he represented a new generation of country songwriters alongside his peers such as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T . Hall.

“There is no better songwriter alive than Kris Kristofferson,” Mr. Nelson said at a BMI awards ceremony for Kristofferson in November 2009.

Hoping to break into the music industry, M^me Kristoffersion worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio in 1966, when Dylan recorded tracks for the seminal double album “Blonde on Blonde.”

One of his most recorded songs, Me and Bobby McGeewas written based on a recommendation from Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Mr. Foster had a song title in mind called Me and Bobby McKeenamed after a secretary in his building. Kristofferson said in an interview with the magazine Performing Songwriter that he had the idea to write the lyrics about a man and a woman on the road after watching Frederico Fellini’s film, La Strada.

Janis Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and did her version days before his death in 1970 from a drug overdose. The recording became a posthumous hit for Joplin.

Hits that Kristofferson has recorded include Why Me, Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do), Watch Closely Now, Desperadoes Waiting for a Train And Jesus Was a Capricorn.

In 1973, he married songwriter Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duo career that earned them two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.

He retired from performing and recording in 2021, making only occasional appearances on stage.