Kris Kristofferson, country icon and ‘A Star Is Born’ actor, dies at 88

Kris Kristofferson, country music idol and actor in films such as the 1976 version of “A Star Is Born”, died this Saturday (28) at the age of 88, at his home in Hawaii, his family announced. Details about the death were not released.

“We are blessed for the time we had with him. Thank you for the love over the years and when you see a rainbow, know that he is smiling as he looks at us,” reads the statement sent to the press.

Voice of iconic American country songs, such as “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” Kristofferson performed alongside the supergroup The Highwaymen, also formed by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, between 1985 and 1995.

The partnership between some of the most famous names in the genre produced three studio albums, which revived the so-called The Outlaw Movement, a movement of which the quartet was a precursor and which rejected the rules of the music industry whose hub was the city of Nashville, capital of country.

Successful, the partnership was also transformed into the feature film “The Last Diligence”, made for television in 1986. But Kristofferson’s career on screen went back a long way.

In 1976, the artist had already been Barbra Streisand’s love interest in her version of “A Star Is Born”, a classic American cinema story, frequently readapted, about an aspiring singer who meets a showbiz veteran, who in turn sees his career sink in parallel with personal problems.