American country music icon and actor Kris Kristofferson has died at the age of 88

Times of discover News: Rhodes Scholar Kris Kristofferson, whose skillful writing style and flamboyant charisma turned a country music superstar and a top Hollywood actor, has died. Family spokeswoman Abby McFarland said in an email that Kristofferson died Saturday at his home in Maui, Hawaii. He was 88. McFarland said Kristofferson died peacefully with his family by his side. No cause was given. He was 88.

Since the late 1960s, the Brownsville, Texas, native has recorded country and rock 'n' roll hits such as "Sunday Morning's Comin' Down," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "For the Good Times" and "Me and Me." ...Bobby McGee". 'Write the role standard. Kristofferson was a singer himself, but many of his most famous songs were sung by others, such as singing Ray Price's "For the Good Times" or Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee."

He co-starred with Ellen Burstyn in director Martin Scorsese's 1974 film "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," starred opposite Barbra Streisand in 1976's "A Star Is Born" and starred opposite Wesley Snipes in Marvel's "Blade" in 1998. They were both released together.

Kristofferson, who can recite William Blake from memory, weaved complex folk music lyrics about loneliness and tender romance into popular country music. With his long hair and bell-bottom pants and Bob Dylan-influenced counterculture lyrics, he represented a new breed of country singers, along with peers such as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

BMI "There's no better songwriter than Kris Kristofferson," Nelson said during a November 2009 awards ceremony for Kristofferson, sponsored by the 2010s. "Everything he writes is a standard and we all have to live up to it."

Kristofferson will retire from acting and recording in 2021, and he has made occasional guest appearances on stage, including a performance with Cash's daughter Rosanne at Nelson's 90th birthday celebration at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in 2023. The two sang "Loving Her Was Easier [Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again]," a song that was a hit for Kristofferson and a longtime live staple for Nelson, another major influence in his work.

Kristofferson was a Gold Gloves boxer, college rugby and football star; earned a master's degree in English from Merton College, University of Oxford, England; and flew as a helicopter captain in the U.S. Army, but turned down a teaching appointment at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. Hoping to break into the industry, he worked as a part-time janitor at Columbia Records' Music Row studios in 1966, when Dylan recorded a double track on his seminal album "Blonde on Blonde." Sometimes, Kristofferson's legend is bigger than real life. 

Cash likes to tell an exaggerated story about how Kristofferson, a former U.S. Army pilot, landed his helicopter on Cash's lawn and, with a beer in one hand, handed him a tape of "Sunday Morning Comin' Down." In interviews over the years, Kristofferson said that, with all due respect to Cash, the demo tape on Cash when a helicopter landed at Cash's house was a song that no one had actually played. 

It doesn't matter and you certainly can't fly a helicopter while drinking beer. In an interview with the Associated Press in 2006 he said his career would not have taken off without Cash. "Shaking his hand backstage at the Grand Ole Opry when I was in the Army made me decide I would come back," Kristofferson said. "He was wonderful. He took me under his wing before I recorded any of my songs. He produced my first record which was the record of the year. He put me on stage for the first time."

One of his most recorded songs, "Me and Bobby McGee", was written at the recommendation of Monument Records founder Fred Foster. Foster had a song in mind called "Me and Bobby McGee", named after a female secretary who worked in his office. Kristofferson said in an interview with "Performing Songwriter" magazine that he was inspired to write the song after watching Frederico Fellini's film "La Strada", which features a man and a woman walking down the street together.

Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and produced her version just days before her death from a drug overdose in 1970. The recording became a posthumous No. 1 hit for Joplin.