Actor and country music legend Kris Kristofferson, a star born, passed away at the age of 88
The entertainment world has lost an icon.
Kris Kristofferson, a Grammy-winning country music singer-songwriter and actor who appeared in films such as Blade and the ’70s version of A Star Is Born, has died. He was 88.
He passed away peacefully in his home in Maui, Hawaii Sept. 28, surrounded by family, they said in a statement obtained by E! News.
Kristofferson, a Texas native and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot, had begun recording music when he was a Rhodes scholar at the University of Oxford in the ’50s and rose to fame as a singer-songwriter in the late ’60s.
Along with his then-wife Rita Coolidge, he had success with recorded singles including «Why Me» and «From the Bottle to the Bottom» and «Lover Please.» The latter two songs won the pair Grammys for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group.
Along with being a bandmate in the 1980s supergroup the Highwaymen, Johnny Cash performed «Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,» and Kristofferson was also well-known for penning hit singles that other singers made famous.
Two such hits were «Me and Bobby McGee,» sung by Kristofferson’s then-girlfriend Janis Joplin and released in 1971, months after her death at the age of 27. According to The New York Times, Kristofferson’s passport really stated «writer» as his occupation.
