Kris Kristofferson, the country music pioneer who wowed audiences in “A Star Is Born,” has died at age 88

Kris Kristofferson, the dynamic, groundbreaking country hitmaker who wowed audiences in the 1976 remake of “A Star Is Born,” died Saturday at age 88.

The star was surrounded by his family, but a cause of death was not given, Variety reported Sunday.

Just a month before his death, the Golden Globe winner put his ranch on the Mendocino coast in northern California on the market for $17.2 million, according to The Sacramento Bee.

In a 2021 statement from his management, he announced his retirement and revealed that he had slowly retreated from the spotlight.

Kristofferson was known for his 1972 hit “Why Me” and “Me & Bobby McGee,” a hit recorded by Janis Joplin shortly before her death in 1970.

According to PBS, Kristofferson once said that his songs “come from the soul” and described his songwriting skills as a gift.

He was equally successful on the big screen.

He played the vampire hunter Abraham Whistler in the 1998 horror film Blade and the love interest of the character Ellen Burstyn in the 1974 Martin Scorsese drama Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

“Blade” started as a trilogy series, the second part premiered in 2002 and the third in 2004. In all subsequent films he reprized his role as Whistler and played Blade's mentor (Wesley Snipes).

Kristofferson was born on June 22, 1936 in Brownsville, Texas, where he discovered his passion for music at an early age.

He remembered hearing country and Norteño music, as well as songs from Mexico and South Texas, on the radio stations there.

“I think it was the strongest influence in my life,” Kristofferson admitted during a 2018 appearance on New Orleans public radio station WWNO.

“I spent about 11 years down there — my first 11 — and the frontier music, the Mexican music, it was just heart music, and the country music was the same,” he continued. “I always felt like it was the Rio Grande Valley that started the music in my brain.”

When Kristofferson was just 11 years old, he wrote his first song, “I Hate Your Ugly Face,” according to PBS.

He said that the best thing for him at that time was to write a love song.

He released the ballad in 2009.

He moved around quite a bit as a child, as his father was an Army Air Corps officer, according to PBS.

When he was still a teenager, his family eventually settled in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco.

After graduating from high school in 1954, Kristofferson went to Pomona College in Claremont, where he played football.

When he was just 18 years old, he was published in The Atlantic Monthly after winning first prize in the magazine's short story contest.

The two compositions were titled “Gone Are the Days” and “The Rock”.

He concentrated on writing and learned from the philosopher Dr. Frederick Sontag, who encouraged him to apply for a Rhodes Scholarship.

He studied literature at Oxford University in England, graduating in 1960 and then returning to California.

According to Wide Open Country, he married his high school sweetheart, Fran Beer, that same year. They divorced in 1969.

Kristofferson served in the military and began his service in 1960. According to VA News, he trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker in Alabama and later served in West Germany with the 8th Infantry Division.

But he continued to write songs and perform in a band with his comrades during his stay in Germany, the outlet reported.

After returning from Germany, he was even offered a position as a literature teacher at the prestigious West Point, but he declined when he learned that he would have to write lesson plans, a feat that frightened him.

In 1965, he moved to Nashville, where he got out of the Army and vowed to succeed in the industry – and he did.

He worked hard night shifts as a janitor at Columbia Studios and gave demo tapes of his songs to country music stars.

According to his biography on Nashville's Walk of Fame website, the star reached a “turning point” in his career in 1969 when Johnny Cash recorded Kristofferson's song “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” which won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year trophy in 1970 won.

His career continued to take off as he wrote for other legends such as Cash, Ray Price and Waylon Jennings and received a Grammy Award in 1972 for his work on “Help Me Make It Through The Night”, recorded by Sammi Smith.

Before her death in 1970, he briefly dated Janis Joplin, as they met through their mutual friend and folk singer Bobby Neuwirth, according to Far Out Magazine.

They played a show together in New York and then traveled to see her in California, which ended up being a three-week trip.

In 1976, he got a big break in his acting career when he played the role of John Norman Howard, a failed rock star, in the third episode of A Star Is Born.

Kristofferson starred alongside Barbra Streisand, his lover Esther Hoffman.

According to Vox, her performance became the third highest-grossing film of 1976.

While other reviews of the film were mixed and it was widely panned by critics, the piece won a Golden Globe for Best Picture in 1977, earning Kristofferson his first film award.

In 1985, he formed the country supergroup Highwaymen with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson, which proved legendary.

According to The Willie Nelson and Friends Museum, they released three studio albums, “Highwayman” (1985), “Highwayman 2” (1990) and “The Road Goes On Forever” (1995).

Even after the musical group disbanded, they remained close friends, with Nelson and Kristofferson still making music together even after the deaths of Jennings in 2002 and Cash in 2003.

Throughout his career, Kristofferson received numerous awards and accolades.

He was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014 and a Johnny Mercer Award in 2006 at the Songwriters' Hall of Fame.

He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.

In 2016, Kristofferson was diagnosed with Lyme disease after many years of doctors telling him he had either Alzheimer's or dementia.

He suffered from crippling memory loss, which he detailed in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone.

After three weeks of treatment for Lyme disease, his wife said he “suddenly came back,” although there were both good and bad days.

During that interview, Kristofferson also admitted that he was “not afraid” to control his own life.

“Somehow I just slipped into it and it worked,” he told the outlet. “It’s not me – or you. I’m very lucky that (life) lasted this long because I did so many things that could have killed me.”

“But somehow I always have the feeling that he knows what he's doing. It’s been good so far and will probably continue to be that way.”

According to Cowboys & Indians Magazine, Kristofferson always said he wanted the first three lines of Leonard Cohen's song “Bird on a Wire” on his gravestone.

“Like a bird on a wire / like a drunk in a midnight choir / I tried in my own way to be free,” the lyrics go.

In 1973 he married the singer Rita Coolidge, whom he divorced in 1980.

He is survived by his wife Lisa Meyers, 66, whom he married in 1983.

He is also survived by his eight children – Tracy Kristofferson, 61, Kris Kristofferson Jr., 55, Casey Kristofferson, 49, Jesse Kristofferson, 39, Jody Kristofferson, 38, Johnny Robert Kristofferson, 35, Kelly Marie Kristofferson, 33 and Blake Cameron Kristofferson, 29.