Singer-songwriter and actor, Kris Kristofferson, has died aged 88, a family statement has confirmed.
“We’re all so blessed for our time with him,” the statement, signed by wife Lisa, and eight children and seven grandchildren, reads.
“Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all.”
The statement, issued on Sunday night, said the star “passed away peacefully” at home on Saturday.
Fellow performers and collaborators were quick to pay tribute to the star, who officially retired after a consistently successful 60-year music and acting career in 2021.
Barbara Streisand, with whom he co-starred in smash '70s movie A Star is Born paid tribute on social media, writing “It was a joy seeing him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved". Kristofferson won a Golden Globe for his performance in the movie.
Kristofferson performed multiple duets with Dolly Parton, and she also paid tribute, writing, “What a great loss. What a great writer. What a great actor. What a great friend. I will always love you, Dolly.”
Kristofferson was born in Texas in 1936, and schooled in California, eventually studying literature at Pomona College and attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar, making his first forays in music while in the UK under the name Kris Carson.
After a stint in the US Army, where he became a helicopter pilot, Kristofferson relocated to Nashville and took work including janitorial duties for Columbia Recording Studios.
He began to gain success as a songwriter in the late ‘60s writing for artists including Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Stevens, Faron Young and Billy Walker.
His solo breakthrough was partly down to his chopper skills. He landed a helicopter at Johnny Cash’s home, and left a tape of his work, later recalling the raid as “a kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn’t recommend”. Cash recorded Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down, a Kristofferson composition, taking it to the top of the country chart in 1970, and securing the Country Music Awards Song of the Year award.
Kristofferson went on to record 18 studio albums, enjoy continued success through other artists’ covers of his tracks, and built a successful Hollywood acting career, debuting in Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie, before taking roles in movies like Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974).
His biggest success was in A Star Is Born but he also featured in legendary, Hollywood-crashing flop Heaven’s Gate in 1980.
