Very sad news, singer-songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson has passed away at the age of 88.

Times of discover News: Kris Kristofferson, the Rhodes Scholar whose skillful writing style and effervescent charisma turned him into a country music superstar and Hollywood A-list 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.

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 is a songwriter himself, but many of his songs are known to be 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," co-starred with Barbra Streisand in 1976's "A Star Is Born" and starred opposite Wesley Snipes in Marvel's "Blade" in 1998. Acting together.

Kristofferson, who can recite William Blake from memory, weaves 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, along with peers such as Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall, represents a new breed of country singers. At the 2009 BMI Awards ceremony for Kristofferson, Nelson said, "There's no better living singer than Kris Kristofferson." "Everything he writes is a standard and we all have to live by it." Kristofferson will retire from acting and recording in 2021, making 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 great example of their work on Ha'i A Lecter.

Nelson and Kristofferson worked with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to form the country supergroup "The Highwaymen" in the mid-1980s.

Kristofferson was a Golden Gloves boxer, college rugby and football star; earned a master's degree in English from Merton College of Oxford University in England; and served in the U.S. He flew helicopters as a captain in the Army, but left the U.S. Army at West Point, New York, to pursue songwriting in Nashville. He declined an appointment to teach at the military academy.

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 even bigger than real life. Cash likes to tell an exaggerated story about how Kristofferson landed a 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, when a helicopter landed at Cash's house, the demo tape was a song that no one had really 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 wouldn't 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. Goodies recorded by Kristofferson include "Look Closely Now," "Desperadoes Waiting for the Train," "A Song I Want to Sing," and "Jesus Was a Capricorn."

In 1973, he married fellow singer Rita Coolidge and together they had a successful duet career, earning them two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.