US country music star Kris Kristofferson dies, aged 88

Kris Kristofferson, the award-winning country singer and actor who worked with Johnny Cash and Martin Scorsese, has died aged 88.

A representative said he passed away “peacefully” at his home in Hawaii on Saturday, surrounded by family.

The statement described Kristofferson as “a peacenik, a revolutionary, an actor, a superstar, a sex symbol, and a family man.”

The multi-award winner was known for his songwriting, notably credited for Me and Bobby McGee, and Help Me Make It Through the Night, among others. He also acted in the hit movie A Star Is Born.

A message from his family said they were all “so blessed” for the time they had with him.

“Thank you for loving him all these many years, and when you see a rainbow, know he’s smiling down at us all,” said the message, quoted by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

Born in Brownsville, Texas, on 22 June, 1936, Kristofferson became a leading figure in country music.

“When I got started, I was one of the people hoping to bring respect to country music,” he said, according to the family message.

“Some of the songs I had that got to be hits did that. I imagine that’s why somebody might vote me into a Hall of Fame. I know it’s not because of my golden throat.”

Kristofferson studied writing at Pomona College in California and later went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He earned his masters from Oxford in 1960, then returned to the US and joined the army.

He was assigned by the military to teach literature, which he said “sounded like hell”.

In 1965 he visited Nashville, and within two weeks had resigned from his army post and moved to the country music hub to pursue his music career.

The head of the Country Hall of Fame and Museum said he left behind “a resounding legacy”.

“Kris Kristofferson believed creativity is God-given, and those who ignore such a gift are doomed to unhappiness,” Kyle Young wrote on X. “He preached that a life of the mind gives voice to the soul, and his work gave voice not only to his soul but to ours.”

He won three Grammys for best country song, Help Me Make It Through the Night in 1972, and two separate duets with Rita Coolidge (1974, 1976), to whom he was married in the 1970s.

In 1971 Kristofferson debuted as an actor, going on to win a Golden Globe for his portrayal of John Norman Howard in A Star Is Born (1976) opposite Barbra Streisand’s Ester Hoffman.

His acting career saw him take on numerous roles, including in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Lone Star, and the Blade franchise.

In 1985 Kristofferson joined friends Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson to form a supergroup called The Highwaymen.

“Every time I look at a picture of Willie and me and John and Waylon, I find it amazing that they let the janitor in there,” he told journalist Mikal Gilmore, referring to his former job at CBS’s Nashville studio.

In 2003, Kristofferson received the Free Speech Award from the Americana Music Association.

A year later, he became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

He also received multiple lifetime achievement honours, including from The Recording Academy, the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music.

Kristofferson is survived by his wife Lisa, his eight children, and seven grandchildren.