Kris Kristofferson

Kris Kristofferson

June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024
Kris Kristofferson was born into a military family in Brownsville, Texas. He was a star football player at Pomona High School and was considered a “straight arrow” by his friends. He told Charlie Rose in 1998 that “football was more important to me than music” and he wanted to be a football player and a writer. He also was an avid boxer, but a series of concussions derailed his plans to be an athlete.

Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth because of his father’s military service, and the family settled in San Mateo, California.[6] He attended San Mateo High School, where he graduated in 1954. At age 17, Kristofferson took a summer job with a dredging contractor on Wake Island in the western Pacific Ocean. He called it “the hardest job I ever had”.

Kristofferson went to Pomona College in Claremont, California, as a literature major. He studied under Frederick Sontag, whom he considers an important influence in his life.His early writing included prize-winning essays: “The Rock” and “Gone Are the Days” were published in The Atlantic Monthly.

Kristofferson was a captain in the Army and wanted to go to Vietnam, but that request was denied because he had been assigned a teaching position at the United States Military Academy in West Point. He never got to West Point because he fell in love with Nashville after spending time with writers such as Mel Tillis and Tom T. Hall. After shaking Johnny Cash’s hand – while in uniform – Kristofferson said he was “mesmerized.”

He became known as a singer and songwriter with a “country outlaw” reputation. Some of his best known hits include “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” recorded by Johnny Cash, “Me And Bobby McGee,” featured on Janis Joplin’s Pearl album, and “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” which earned Sammi Smith a Grammy for Best Country Music Female Performance and Kristofferson a Grammy for Best Country Song in 1972.

Barbra Streisand selected Kristofferson for the role of John Norman Howard in the movie A Star is Born, for which he won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor. Streisand wanted Elvis Presley to play the role of Howard, but Colonel Tom Parker was angry that Streisand did not approach him first. He also insisted that Presley receive top billing over Streisand. Kristofferson appeared in several films after A Star is Born, including the critically acclaimed Lone Star and the colossal box office flop, Heaven’s Gate.

Kristofferson grew his famous beard while spending a week in hospital with pneumonia. After he was discharged, a magazine printed a photo of him under the headline “the new face of country music,” so he kept it.

Kris Kristofferson had a long-standing friendship with Willie Nelson, but neither of them could recall exactly when they met. During a conversation in Switzerland with Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, they tried to pinpoint when it happened but came up blank. Kristofferson joked that Nelson was so influential in his life that he couldn’t remember a time he didn’t know him. Interestingly, before they became friends, Kristofferson was already idolizing Willie Nelson while serving in the Army.

In 1961, Kristofferson married his longtime girlfriend Frances “Fran” Mavia Beer, but they divorced in 1969. Kristofferson briefly dated Janis Joplin before her death in October 1970. His second marriage was to singer Rita Coolidge in 1973, ending in divorce in 1980.] Kristofferson married Lisa Meyers in 1983.

Kristofferson and Meyers owned a home in Las Flores Canyon in Malibu, California, and they also resided in Hana, Hawaii from 1990 until his death. 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 third wife.

Kris Kristofferson died peacefully at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on September 28, 2024, at the age of 88.