American singer and actor (1936–2024)
"Kristofferson" redirects here. For other uses, see Kristofferson (disambiguation).
Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of say publicly 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and be a symptom of a more raw, introspective style. During the 1970s, he likewise embarked on a successful career as a Hollywood actor.
Kristofferson released his debut album Kristofferson in 1970. Among his songwriting credits are "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Compute the Night", all of which became hits for other artists. Kristofferson was also a member of the country music supergroup the Highwaymen between 1985 and 1995. He has charted 12 times on the American BillboardHot Country Songs charts; his chief peaking singles there are "Why Me" and "Highwayman", which reached number one in 1973 and 1985, respectively. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004 take precedence received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. He was a three-time Grammy Award winner, out of 13 total nominations.[1]
As an actor, he became known for his roles in Cisco Pike (1972), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Blume in Love (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), existing A Star Is Born (1976); for the latter, he attained a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Mound Picture – Musical or Comedy. He was also nominated crave an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the album Songwriter (1984). His acting career waned somewhat following his put on an act in the box office bombHeaven's Gate (1980), but he continuing to act in films such as Stagecoach (1986), Lone Star (1996), and the Blade film trilogy (1998–2004).
Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a United States Army Air Corps officer (later a major community in the United States Air Force).[2] During Kristofferson's childhood, his father encouraged him to pursue a military career.[3]
Kristofferson moved destroy frequently as a youth because of his father's military spasm, and the family settled in San Mateo, California.[4] After graduating from San Mateo High School in 1954, he enrolled sleepy Pomona College, hoping to become a writer. His early verbal skill included prize-winning essays: "The Rock" and "Gone Are the Days" were published in The Atlantic Monthly. These stories touch drag the roots of Kristofferson's passions and concerns. "The Rock" decline about a geographical feature resembling the form of a bride, while the latter was about a racial incident.[5]
At the pad of 17, Kristofferson took a summer job with a dredging contractor on Wake Island in the western Pacific Ocean. Dirt called it "the hardest job I ever had".[6]
Kristofferson attended Pomona College and experienced his first national exposure in 1958, attendance in the March 31 issue of Sports Illustrated for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, American football, and track president field.[7] He and his classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugger Club in 1958, and it remains a Southern California football institution. Kristofferson graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Subject degree, summa cum laude, in literature. He was elected motivate Phi Beta Kappa his junior year. In a 2004 press conference with Pomona College Magazine, Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Author as an important influence in his life.[8]
In 1958, Kristofferson was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford,[9] study at Merton College.[10] While at Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing,[10] played rugby for his college, and began writing songs. At Oxford, he became acquainted with fellow Moneyman scholar, art critic, and poet Michael Fried. With the revealing of his manager, Larry Parnes, Kristofferson recorded for Top In single file Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working hinder sell Kristofferson as "a Yank at Oxford" to the Nation public; Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach postulate it helped his singing career, which he hoped would allow him to progress toward his goal of becoming a novelist.[11]
This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful.[12] In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a B.Phil. in English literature.[10][13][14] In 1961, he married his longtime girlfriend, Frances "Fran" Mavia Beer.[10]
Kristofferson united the Army in 1960 after graduating from Oxford. He became a helicopter pilot who trained at Fort Rucker in River and also attended Ranger School, then worked as a whirlybird pilot in Germany in the early 1960s and was at the end of the day offered a teaching position at West Point in 1965, but turned it down and left the Army to chase his dream of becoming a Country music singer/songwriter. He later stimulated his piloting skills as a source of income while maddening to succeed in Nashville in his early years there.[15]
After relocating to Nashville, Tennessee, Kristofferson contacted Marijohn Wilkin, the kinswoman of his former platoon commander, who signed Kristofferson to have time out publishing house Buckhorn Music. Wilkin pitched his song "Talkin' Annam Blues" to singer Dave Dudley. Concurrently, Kristofferson worked a focus of odd jobs that included bartender, construction worker, and track worker. He later worked as a janitor for Columbia Records, which afforded him the possibility of talking directly with say publicly artists and a presence during recording sessions.
After his second son was born with esophagus issues, Kristofferson worked at Petroleum Helicopters International (PHI) in Lafayette, Louisiana. While flying workers to gain from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, he would often write new songs. At weekends, he returned to Nashville, and for the following week he would pitch the songs around town before returning to Louisiana. The trips exhausted Kristofferson; his children were living with Fran in California and proscribed felt his career as a songwriter was failing. PHI along with admonished him for his increased alcohol consumption. Upon returning seat Nashville the same week, Kristofferson learned three of his songs had been recorded: "Jody and the Kid" by Roy Drusky, "Help Me Make It Through the Night" by Jerry Gladness Lewis and "Me and Bobby McGee" by Roger Miller.
Through June Carter, Kristofferson first attempted to pitch material to her old man Johnny Cash. Carter took the demos, which were eventually missing in a pile of other material Cash had received. Sort the time, Kristofferson worked on the weekends for the River National Guard. To attract Cash's attention, Kristofferson landed a whirlybird in Cash's property. Cash eventually invited Kristofferson to a "guitar pull" party in his house. Cash was impressed and invitational Kristofferson to perform with him at the 1969 Newport Clan Festival. Unsatisfied by Buckhorn Music, Kristofferson decided to change labels. Monument Records director Bob Beckham invited Kristofferson to play songs for him and label owner Fred Foster. Kristofferson performed "To Beat the Devil", "Jody and the Kid", "The Best obey All Possible Worlds" and "Duvalier's Dream"; Foster was impressed innermost offered Kristofferson two contracts; one as a recording artist replace Monument Records and one as a songwriter for Combine Penalisation. The ten-year contract required Kristofferson to submit ten records containing songs he had written. Kristofferson was surprised he had archaic signed as a singer; he told Foster at the time: "I can't sing, I sound like a frog!" Kristofferson afterward said Buckhorn Music had not allowed him to record demos of his compositions.
In 1969, Kristofferson left Nashville to join say publicly production of his first motion picture, Dennis Hopper's The Solid Movie, in Peru. In his absence, Cash continued promoting Kristofferson's original songs with other singers. Upon returning to Nashville, Kristofferson learned of his new popularity and started to work superior his debut album for Monument, Kristofferson.[25] As his manager pole producer, Foster had decided to keep some of Kristofferson's earliest material from being passed to other artists. The new subject, as well as his songs that had already been canned by other artists, were included in the recording sessions, which were held at Monument Recording Studio.
Monument released Kristofferson in June 1970. Kristofferson wrote or co-wrote every song on the ep. He collaborated with Marijohn's son, John Buck Wilkin, on "Blame it on the Stones". Though Kristofferson was not a advertizement success, it received positive reviews from critics. According to Parliamentarian Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times, the album "is unprotected to combine lyric sophistication with country music's traditional interest accumulate everyday problems".[27] The commercial success of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" led to the first of several industry awards nominations tend to the singer. Johnny Cash's rendition of the single earned Kristofferson his first Country Music Association award for Song of representation Year that November.[28]
Kristofferson's next album for Monument was 1971's The Silver Tongued Devil and I. He wrote nine of picture album's 10 songs, including the single "Lovin' Her Was Smooth (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)". He collaborated with composer Shel Silverstein on "The Taker" and keyboardist Donnie Fritts approval "Epitaph (Black and Blue)". Also included on the album was a cover of Bobby Bare's "Good Christian Soldier". "Lovin' Quota Was Easier (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)" reached back copy 46 on BillboardBillboard Hot 100 and number 4 on Fullgrown Contemporary. One year later, Monument released his third album Border Lord. The album was all-new material and sales were inactive. He also swept the Grammy Awards that year with copious songs nominated, winning country song of the year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson's 1972 fourth scrap book, Jesus Was a Capricorn, initially had slow sales, but depiction third single, "Why Me", was a success and significantly accumulated album sales. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA on November 8, 1973.[29]
For the next several years, Kristofferson focused on acting. Flair appeared in Cisco Pike (1972) with Gene Hackman; Blume embankment Love (1973), directed by Paul Mazursky; three Sam Peckinpah films: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), Bring Me representation Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Convoy (1978); and Archangel Ritchie's Semi-Tough (1977) with Burt Reynolds. He continued acting instruct in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Vigilante Force (1976), The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976), and the romantic drama A Star Is Born (1976) with Barbra Streisand, for which he received a Golden Ball Award for Best Actor. At the peak of his coffer office power, Kristofferson turned down William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977) brook the romantic war film Hanover Street (1979). Despite his triumph with Streisand, Kristofferson's solo musical career headed downward with his non-charting ninth album, Shake Hands with the Devil. His incoming film, the two-part 1979 NBC-TV movie Freedom Road, did categorize get good ratings.[citation needed]
Kristofferson was next cast in the instruction role as the enigmatic Sheriff James Averill in Michael Cimino's bleak and sprawling 1980 anti-Western Heaven's Gate. Despite being a scandalous studio-bankrupting and industry-changing failure at the time (it scale Kristofferson his Hollywood A-list status), the film gained critical ride up in subsequent years. In 1981, he co-starred with Jane Player in Rollover, directed by Alan J. Pakula. In 1986, forbidden starred in The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James with Johnny Cash and Flashpoint with Treat Williams in 1984, directed by William Tannen. This was followed, in 1985, toddler the neo-noir thriller Trouble In Mind co-starring Keith Carradine most important Lori Singer. In 1987, Kristofferson starred in the seven-episode TV series Amerika with Robert Urich and Christine Lahti. In 1989, he was the male lead in the film Millennium process Cheryl Ladd. In 1996, he earned a supporting role trade in Charlie Wade, a corrupt South Texas sheriff in John Sayles' Lone Star, a film nominated for an Academy Award preventable Best Original Screenplay. In 1997, he co-starred in the skin Fire Down Below with Steven Seagal.[30]
In 1998, Kristofferson took a role in the film Blade, alongside Wesley Snipes, as Blade's mentor Abraham Whistler. He reprised the role in Blade II (2002) and again in Blade: Trinity (2004). In 1998 sharptasting starred in Dance with Me along with Vanessa Williams talented Chayanne. In 1999, he co-starred with Mel Gibson in Payback. He played rancher Rudolph Meyer in Molokai: The Story submit Father Damien (1999). He was then in the 2001 Tim Burton version of Planet of the Apes. He also played the title character "Yohan" as an old man in picture Norwegian film Yohan: The Child Wanderer. He co-starred in interpretation 2011 film Dolphin Tale and its 2014 sequel, Dolphin Report 2. In 2012, Kristofferson was in Joyful Noise with longtime friend Dolly Parton. In 2013, Kristofferson co-starred in The Motel Life, as well as Angels Sing with Willie Nelson become peaceful Lyle Lovett. In 2006, Kristofferson starred with Geneviève Bujold create the film Disappearances about whiskey running from Quebec to picture U.S. during the Great Depression.[31]
In 1972, Kristofferson appeared with President on British TV on BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, performing "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Also lecture in 1972, Al Green released his version of "For the Decent Times" on the album I'm Still in Love with You.[32] In April 1973, Kristofferson received an honorary doctorate in superior arts from Pomona College during Alumni Weekend, accompanied by Disparity and Coolidge.[33] Four months later, Kristofferson married Coolidge. The duo released an album titled Full Moon, another success buoyed beside numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. His fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow, released in 1974, was a commercial failure, bubble with the trend for most of the rest of his mellifluous career. Artists such as Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Duncan continuing to record Kristofferson's material with success, but his distinctively boorish voice and anti-pop sound kept his own audience to a minimum. Meanwhile, more artists took his songs to the ridge of the charts, including Willie Nelson, whose 1979 LP set free of (Willie Nelson) Sings Kristofferson reached number five on say publicly U.S. Country Music chart and certified Platinum in the U.S.[citation needed]
In 1979, Kristofferson traveled to Havana, Cuba, to participate love the historic Havana Jam festival that took place on Parade 2–4, alongside Coolidge, Stephen Stills, the CBS Jazz All-Stars, representation Trio of Doom, Fania All-Stars, Billy Swan, Bonnie Bramlett, Microphone Finnigan, Weather Report, and Billy Joel, plus an array sight Cuban artists such as Irakere, Pacho Alonso, Tata Güines, leading Orquesta Aragón. His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary Havana Jam '79.[citation needed]
On November 18, 1979, Kristofferson sit Coolidge appeared on The Muppet Show, where Kristofferson sang "Help Me Make It Through the Night" with Miss Piggy, President sang "We're All Alone" with forest animals, and the dyad sang "Song I'd Like to Sing" with the Muppet monsters. They divorced in 1980.[34]
In 1982, Kristofferson joined Willie Admiral, Dolly Parton, and Brenda Lee on The Winning Hand, a double album consisting of remastered and updated performances of recordings the four artists had made for the Monument label amid the mid-1960s; the album reached the top ten on description U.S. country album charts. He married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a time, appearing in representation 1984 releases The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, Flashpoint, subject Songwriter. Nelson and Kristofferson both appeared in Songwriter, and Kristofferson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Best. The album Music from Songwriter, featuring Nelson-Kristofferson duets, was a country success.[citation needed]
Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and building block 1985, they added Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to morsel the supergroupthe Highwaymen. Their self-titled first album, released on Can 6, was a success, and the supergroup continued working intermingling for a time. The single from the album, a retrieve of Jimmy Webb's "Highwayman", was awarded the ACM's single quite a few the year in 1985.[35] In 1985, Kristofferson starred in Trouble in Mind and released Repossessed, a politically aware album avoid was a country success, particularly "They Killed Him" (also performed by Bob Dylan), a tribute to his heroes, including Player Luther King Jr., Jesus, and Mahatma Gandhi.[36] Kristofferson also emerged in Amerika at about the same time, a miniseries delay attempted to depict life in America under Soviet control.[37]
In vindictiveness of the success of Highwayman 2 in 1990, Kristofferson's on one's own recording career slipped significantly in the early 1990s, though settle down continued to record successfully with the Highwaymen. Lone Star (1996 film by John Sayles) reinvigorated Kristofferson's acting career, and dirt soon appeared in Blade, Blade II, Blade: Trinity, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Fire Down Below, Tim Burton's remake reveal Planet of the Apes, Chelsea Walls, Payback, The Jacket, bid Fast Food Nation.[citation needed]
The Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Kristofferson in 1985, as had the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Villainy earlier, in 1977. In 1999, The Austin Sessions was unrestricted, an album on which Kristofferson reworked some of his dearie songs with the help of artists such as Mark Knopfler, Steve Earle, and Jackson Browne. Shortly after the album's turn loose, he underwent coronary artery bypass surgery.[38]
In 2003, Broken Freedom Song was released, a live album recorded in San Francisco. Avoid year, he received the "Spirit of Americana" free speech grant from the Americana Music Association.[39] In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. On October 21, 2005, the movie Dreamer was released, in which Kristofferson played the role of "Pop", a retired thoroughbred horse trainer. Rendering movie was inspired by the true story of the maria Mariah's Storm which won the Turfway Breeders Cup Classic. Layer 2006, he received the Johnny Mercer Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and released his first album full custom new material in 11 years; This Old Road. On Apr 21, 2007, Kristofferson won CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award. Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter, presented the honor during the April 16 awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash, Hank Ballplayer Jr., Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, and the Dixie Chicks. "John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honor extract my eyes," Kristofferson said during a phone interview. "I was thinking back to when I first met him, and pretend I ever thought that I'd be getting an award plea bargain his name on it, it would have carried me have a medical condition a lot of hard times."[40]
In July 2007, Kristofferson was featured on CMT's Studio 330 Sessions where he played many make stronger his hits.[citation needed]
On June 13, 2008, Kristofferson performed an acoustical in-the-round set with Patty Griffin and Randy Owen (Alabama) appropriate a special taping of a PBS songwriters series aired lure December. Each performer played five songs. Kristofferson's set included "The Best of All Possible Worlds", "Darby's Castle", "Casey's Last Ride", "Me and Bobby McGee", and "Here Comes that Rainbow Again". Taping was done in Nashville.[citation needed]
Kristofferson released a new photo album of original songs titled Closer to the Bone on Sep 28, 2009. It is produced by Don Was on description New West Records label. Prior to the release, Kristofferson remarked: "I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all second at this time of life."[41]
On November 10, 2009, Kristofferson was honored as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI Country Awards. Throughout his career, Kristofferson's songwriting garnered 48 BMI Country and Pop Awards.[42] He later remarked, "The great for free about being a songwriter is you can hear your neonate interpreted by so many people that have creative talents vocally that I don't have."[43] Kristofferson had always denied having a good voice, and had said that as he had sheer, any quality it once had was beginning to decay.[44]
In Dec 2009, it was announced that Kristofferson would be portraying Joe on the upcoming album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer John Mellencamp and novelist Stephen King.[45]
On May 11, 2010, Light in the Attic Records released demos that were recorded during Kristofferson's janitorial stint at Columbia. Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos was the first time these recordings were released and be a factor material that would later be featured on other Kristofferson recordings and on the recordings of other prominent artists, such little the original recording of "Me and Bobby McGee".[citation needed]
On June 4, 2011, Kristofferson performed a solo acoustic show at picture Maui Arts and Cultural Center, showcasing both some of his original hits made famous by other artists, and newer songs.[citation needed]
In early 2013, Kristofferson released a new album of inspired songs called Feeling Mortal.[46] A live album titled An Eventide With Kris Kristofferson was released in September 2014.[47]
Kristofferson voiced description character Chief Hanlon of the NCR Rangers in the proof of payment 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas.[48]
In an interview for Las Vegas magazine Q&A by Matt Kelemen on October 23, 2015, Kristofferson revealed that a new album, The Cedar Creek Sessions, recorded in Austin, would include some old and some newfound songs.[49] Released on June 17, 2016, it would be his last studio album issued during his lifetime. That December, depiction album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Artefact Album.[50]
Kristofferson covered Brandi Carlile's "Turpentine" on the 2017 album Cover Stories.[51]
In August 2018, Kristofferson's final film, Blaze, opened. Three months later, on November 7, Kristofferson performed, with assistance from Carlile, the Joni Mitchell composition "A Case of You", from picture 1971 Mitchell album Blue, at the Both Sides Now – Joni 75 A Birthday Celebration to celebrate the 75th date of Mitchell.[52]
In June 2019, Kristofferson was announced as being work out of the supporting artists for a Barbra Streisand "exclusive Continent concert" on July 7 in London's Hyde Park as almost all of the Barclay's Summertime Concert series.[53]
By January 2021, Kristofferson announced his retirement from performing, citing age and concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. According to manager Tamara Saviano, "It was an evolution, and it just felt very organic."[54] Kristofferson's final performance was held in Los Angeles at the Tone Bowl on April 29, 2023, where he sang a decorate of "Lovin' You Was Easier" with Rosanne Cash in show partiality towards of Willie Nelson's 90th birthday;[55] the concert was later at large as Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 that December.
Kristofferson died at his Maui home on September 28, 2024; inaccuracy was 88.[56][57] He previously requested for the first three pass the time of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone:[58][59]
Like a bird on the wire
Like a drunk in a midnight choir
I have tried in my way to lay at somebody's door free
In 1961, Kristofferson married his longtime girlfriend Frances "Fran" Mavia Beer, but they divorced in 1969.[10][60][61] Kristofferson in short dated Janis Joplin before her death in October 1970.[60] His second marriage was to singer Rita Coolidge in 1973, point in divorce in 1980.[4][60] Kristofferson married Lisa Meyers in 1983.[60]
Kristofferson and Meyers owned a home in Las Flores Canyon make out Malibu, California,[38] and maintained a residence in Hana, Hawaii, genre the island of Maui.[60] Kristofferson had eight children from his three marriages: two from his first marriage, one from his second marriage, and five from his marriage to his base wife.[62]
Kristofferson was a vocal opponent of rendering Gulf War and Iraq War and a critic of a number of United States military interventions and foreign policy positions, including the United States invasion of Panama and U.S. prop of the Contras during the Nicaraguan Revolution and of representation Apartheid government in South Africa.[63]
Kristofferson endorsed Jesse Jackson's presidential getupandgo in 1988 and Ross Perot's presidential campaign in 1992.[64][65]
Kristofferson's initiation LP included a pro-Vietnam War song, but he said put off he later became an opponent of the war after tongued with returning soldiers who had seen combat. Speaking about a soldier who had told him that he had witnessed vex soldiers throwing people out of helicopters during interrogation, Kristofferson held, "The notion that you could make a young person quarrel something so inhumane to another soldier—or even worse, a civilian—convinced me that we were in the wrong." Kristofferson called himself a "dove with claws" and remained proud of his militaristic service in spite of his anti-imperialist views.
In a 1991 interview on New Zealand TV, he condemned media support bring forward the Gulf War, saying "The lapdog media cranks out newspeak that would make a Nazi blush."[66] Kristofferson was a promoter of the United Farm Workers and appeared at several rallies and benefits for them, campaigning with Cesar Chavez for picture passage of Proposition 14. He continued to play at benefits for the UFW through the 2010s. In 1987, he played at a benefit concert for Leonard Peltier with Jackson Writer, Willie Nelson and Joni Mitchell. In 1995, he dedicated a song to Mumia Abu-Jamal at a concert in Philadelphia, sports ground was booed by the crowd.[67]
He performed in benefit concerts let slip Palestinian children, and said that he "found a considerable shortage of work as a result." At a Bob Dylan feast concert shortly after Sinead O'Connor's protest on Saturday Night Live, he showed solidarity with her when she was booed do without the crowd.[68]
Main article: Kris Kristofferson discography
Main article: Kris Kristofferson filmography
Kristofferson has won three competitive Grammys running away thirteen nominations. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.[69]