1936–1965: Early life and military service Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in
Brownsville, Texas, the oldest of three children born to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Henry Kristofferson, a
United States Army Air Corps officer (later a
major general in the
United States Air Force). During Kristofferson's childhood, his father encouraged him to pursue a military career. Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth because of his father's military service, and the family settled in
San Mateo, California. 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. 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 that were published in
The Atlantic. During this time, Kristofferson worked in various construction jobs and as a firefighter. He and his classmates also revived the
Claremont Colleges Rugby Club, and it remains a Southern California rugby institution. Kristofferson graduated in 1958, earning a
Bachelor of Arts degree,
summa cum laude, in
literature. He was elected to the
Phi Beta Kappa society his junior year. studying at
Merton College. While performing his own songs there, Kristofferson signed with
Larry Parnes, best known for his work with
Tommy Steele. Parnes was working to sell Kristofferson as "a Yank at Oxford" to the British public; Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach if it helped his singing career, which he hoped would enable him to progress toward his goal of becoming a novelist. In early 1959, Kristofferson signed a recording contract with Paul Lincoln's Top Rank label as "Kris Carson", but these recordings were unsuccessful. In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a
master's degree in
English literature. In 1961, he married his longtime girlfriend, Frances "Fran" Mavia Beer. Also in 1961, Kristofferson joined the
United States Army and was commissioned as a
second lieutenant. He attended
U.S. Army Ranger School and completed helicopter pilot training at
Fort Rucker, Alabama. He relocated Beer and their newborn daughter to
West Germany, where he served as a member of the
8th Infantry Division. During this period, Kristofferson was promoted to the rank of
captain and resumed his music career, forming a band to play at service clubs. It was at this point that he met
Marijohn Wilkin, the aunt of his platoon commander.
1965–1972: Early music and film career In June 1965, while on a two-week leave from his assignments, Kristofferson contacted Wilkin in Nashville, Tennessee, and decided to become a country music songwriter. He resigned from the Army and relocated his family to Nashville that year, exacerbating his relationship with his parents. Wilkin signed Kristofferson to her publishing house Buckhorn Music and pitched his song "Talkin' Vietnam Blues" to singer
Dave Dudley. Concurrently, Kristofferson held various jobs including as a bartender, a construction worker, and a railroad worker. He later worked as a janitor for
Columbia Records, which afforded him the possibility of talking directly with the artists and a presence during recording sessions. He released his debut single containing his songs "Golden Idol" and "Killing Time" in 1967 on
Epic Records. The commercial success of "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" led to the first of several industry awards nominations for the singer. Johnny Cash's rendition of the single earned Kristofferson his first
Country Music Association award for
Song of the Year that November. Also in 1970, he made his debut performance as a singer at the Los Angeles nightclub
The Troubadour.
Fred Roos, the casting director of
Bob Rafelson's
Five Easy Pieces, invited him to audition for his film debut for a leading role on
Two-Lane Blacktop. Kristofferson, who was signed to
Columbia Records, arrived to the appointment intoxicated and left. Kristofferson was next offered
Bill L. Norton's script for
Cisco Pike by Columbia. His peers encouraged him to reject the role and to take acting lessons instead, but he accepted the part, and later said; "I read the script and I could identify with this cat" and that acting is "understanding a character, and then being just as honest as you can possibly be". Kristofferson began an 18-month tour, during which he suffered a bout of
walking pneumonia, which was worsened by his alcohol consumption. While performing, he would not face the audience and mumbled the words to his songs. Eventually, he was hospitalized. During the tour, Kristofferson performed on
The Johnny Cash Show. While in California, Kristofferson befriended singer
Janis Joplin. Upon returning to Nashville in early 1971, he received with his mail at Combine Music Joplin's posthumous album
Pearl, which at the time was still unreleased. Joplin's album included a cover of his original composition "
Me and Bobby McGee". The following morning, he returned to the studio and recorded his second Monument album,
The Silver Tongued Devil and I, which was released that July. He wrote nine of the album's 10 songs, including the single "
Lovin' Her Was Easier (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)". He collaborated with songwriter
Shel Silverstein on "The Taker" and keyboardist
Donnie Fritts on "Epitaph (Black and Blue)". Also included on the album was a cover of
Bobby Bare's "Good Christian Soldier". "Lovin' Her Was Easier (than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)" reached number 46 on
Billboard Hot 100 and number 4 on
Adult Contemporary. These songs would later be used on the soundtrack for
Cisco Pike, which was released on January 14, 1972. That February, Monument released his third album
Border Lord. The album was all-new material and sales were sluggish. He also swept the
Grammy Awards that year with numerous songs nominated, winning country song of the year for "Help Me Make It Through the Night". Kristofferson's fourth album,
Jesus Was a Capricorn, initially had slow sales, but the third single, "
Why Me", was a success and significantly increased album sales. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc by the
RIAA on November 8, 1973. Kristofferson appeared with Rita Coolidge on the BBC television series
The Old Grey Whistle Test, performing "Help Me Make It Through the Night".
Al Green later released his version of "
For the Good Times" on the album ''
I'm Still in Love with You''.
1973–1985: Commercial peak In April 1973, Kristofferson received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pomona College during Alumni Weekend, accompanied by Cash and Coolidge. Four months later, Kristofferson married Coolidge. The duo released an album titled
Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. His fifth album, ''
Spooky Lady's Sideshow'', released in 1974, was a commercial failure. Artists such as
Ronnie Milsap,
Willie Nelson and
Johnny Duncan continued to record Kristofferson's material with success, but his rough vocal style and anti-pop sound kept his own audience to a minimum. In March 1979, Kristofferson participated in the
Havana Jam festival in
Havana alongside several notable American and Cuban artists. His performance is captured on Ernesto Juan Castellanos's documentary ''Havana Jam '79
. That November, Kristofferson and Coolidge appeared on The Muppet Show'', where Kristofferson sang "
Help Me Make It Through the Night" with
Miss Piggy, Coolidge sang "
We're All Alone" with forest animals, and the pair sang "
Song I'd Like to Sing" with the Muppet monsters. They divorced in 1980. In 1982, Kristofferson joined
Willie Nelson,
Dolly Parton, and
Brenda Lee on
The Winning Hand, a double album consisting of remastered and updated performances of recordings the four artists had made for the Monument label during the mid-1960s; the album reached the top ten on the U.S. country album charts. He married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a time, appearing in the 1984 releases
The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck,
Flashpoint, and
Songwriter. Nelson and Kristofferson both appeared in
Songwriter, and Kristofferson was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Original Score. The album
Music from Songwriter, featuring Nelson-Kristofferson duets, was a country success. In 1985, Kristofferson starred in
Trouble in Mind and released
Repossessed, a politically aware album that was a country success, particularly "They Killed Him" (also performed by
Bob Dylan), a tribute to his heroes, including
Martin Luther King Jr., Jesus, and
Mahatma Gandhi. Kristofferson also appeared in
Amerika at about the same time, a miniseries that attempted to depict life in America under
Soviet control. Festival In spite of the success of
Highwayman 2 in 1990, Kristofferson's solo recording career slipped significantly in the early 1990s, though he continued to record successfully with the Highwaymen.
Lone Star (1996 film by
John Sayles) reinvigorated Kristofferson's acting career, and he soon appeared in
Blade,
Blade II,
Blade: Trinity, ''
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Fire Down Below'',
Tim Burton's remake of
Planet of the Apes,
Chelsea Walls,
Payback,
The Jacket, and
Fast Food Nation. The
Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted Kristofferson in 1985, as had the
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier, in 1977. In 1999,
The Austin Sessions was released, an album on which Kristofferson reworked some of his favorite songs with the help of artists such as
Mark Knopfler,
Steve Earle, and
Jackson Browne. He underwent
coronary artery bypass surgery shortly after the album's release. Kristofferson appeared in the
Stephen Norrington film
Blade, alongside
Wesley Snipes, as
Blade's mentor
Abraham Whistler. He reprised the role in
Blade II (2002) and again in
Blade: Trinity (2004). In 1998 he starred in
Dance with Me along with
Vanessa Williams and
Chayanne. In 2003,
Broken Freedom Song was released, a live album recorded in San Francisco. That year, he received the "Spirit of Americana" free speech award from the
Americana Music Association. In 2004, he began experiencing memory problems which lasted for the next 11 years. That November, he was inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame. On October 21, 2005, the film
Dreamer was released, in which Kristofferson played the role of "Pop", a retired thoroughbred horse trainer. The film was inspired by the true story of the mare
Mariah's Storm which won the Turfway Breeders Cup Classic. In 2006, he received the
Johnny Mercer Award from the
Songwriters Hall of Fame and released his first album full of new material in 11 years;
This Old Road. Also in 2006, Kristofferson starred with
Geneviève Bujold in the film
Disappearances about whiskey running from
Quebec to the U.S. during the
Great Depression. On April 21, 2007, Kristofferson won
CMT's Johnny Cash Visionary Award.
Rosanne Cash, Cash's daughter, presented the honor during the April 16 awards show in Nashville. Previous recipients include Cash,
Hank Williams Jr.,
Loretta Lynn,
Reba McEntire, and the
Dixie Chicks. "John was my hero before he was my friend, and anything with his name on it is really an honor in my eyes," Kristofferson said during a phone interview. "I was thinking back to when I first met him, and if I ever thought that I'd be getting an award with his name on it, it would have carried me through a lot of hard times." Kristofferson's next studio album, titled
Closer to the Bone, was released in September 2009. It is produced by
Don Was on the
New West Records label. Before the release, Kristofferson remarked: "I like the intimacy of the new album. It has a general mood of reflecting on where we all are at this time of life." That November, Kristofferson was honored as a
BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI Country Awards. Throughout his career, Kristofferson's songwriting garnered 48 BMI Country and Pop Awards. He later remarked, "The great thing about being a songwriter is you can hear your baby interpreted by so many people that have creative talents vocally that I don't have." Kristofferson had always denied having a good voice, and had said that as he had aged, any quality it once had was beginning to decay. In May 2010,
Light in the Attic Records released demos that were recorded during Kristofferson's janitorial stint at Columbia. ''
Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends: The Publishing Demos was the first time these recordings were released and included material that would later be featured on other Kristofferson recordings and on the recordings of other prominent artists, such as the original recording of "Me and Bobby McGee". Also in 2010, Kristofferson voiced the character Chief Hanlon of the NCR Rangers in the video game Fallout: New Vegas''. In early 2013, Kristofferson released an album of original songs called
Feeling Mortal. Thom Jurek of
AllMusic called album "as honest a title as exists". He also praised the album's title track and "Ramblin’ Jack". That June, Kristofferson portrayed Joe on the album
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer
John Mellencamp and novelist
Stephen King. In September, Kristofferson recorded an acoustic concert at
Union Chapel, Islington, to be released the following year as
An Evening with Kris Kristofferson: The Pilgrim; Ch 77. In 2014, Kristofferson engaged in a series of recording sessions at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin, Texas, which led to his final studio album,
The Cedar Creek Sessions. Released in June 2016, the album was nominated for a
Grammy Award for Best Americana Album that December. Jeff Lincoln, in his review for the album on
Country Standard Time, praised Kristofferson's humor and called the album "a songwriter's showcase". Kristofferson covered
Brandi Carlile's "Turpentine" on the 2017 album
Cover Stories. In August 2018, Kristofferson's final film,
Blaze, was released. That November, Kristofferson performed, with assistance from Carlile, a cover of
Joni Mitchell's "
A Case of You", from the 1971 Mitchell album
Blue, at the
Both Sides Now – Joni 75 A Birthday Celebration to celebrate Mitchell's 75th birthday. Kristofferson was one of the supporting artists for a Barbra Streisand "exclusive European concert" on July 7, 2019 in
Hyde Park, London as part of the
British Summer Time concert series.
2021–2024: Retirement and death By January 2021, Kristofferson announced his retirement from performing, citing age and concerns regarding the
COVID-19 pandemic. Kristofferson's final performance was held in Los Angeles at the
Hollywood Bowl on April 29, 2023, where he sang a cover of "Lovin' You Was Easier" with Rosanne Cash in honor of Willie Nelson's 90th birthday; the concert was later released as
Long Story Short: Willie Nelson 90 that December. Kristofferson died in his Hana, Hawaii, home on September 28, 2024, at the age of 88. His family did not provide a cause of death. He had requested for the first three lines of
Leonard Cohen's "
Bird on the Wire" on his tombstone: Like a bird on the wire Like a drunk in a midnight choir I have tried in my way to be free Family and associates, including
Dolly Parton,
Reba McEntire and
Miranda Lambert, paid tribute to Kristofferson on social media, while media outlets also published tributes written by singers
Willie Nelson and Ashley McBride. Many other musicians, artists, and celebrities offered public acknowledgements. == Personal life ==