American songwriter, country singer and recording artist and actor. By 1984, Kristofferson had appeared in 14 films, most notably as Barbra Streisand’s love interest in “A Star is Born,” 1976 and “Songwriter” in 1984. He won a Golden Globe award in 1977 for Best Actor in a Musical with “A Star is Born.” As a recording artist, he has over 16 record albums to his credit and songs he has written have been recorded by more than 450 artists. In the ’70s, Kristofferson indulged in booze, drugs and women, owning one of the most notorious reputations in Hollywood and Nashville as a high-flying party animal.
Kristofferson came from a family with a long line of military history. His father was a major general in the Air Force and his mother was a conservative homemaker. He and his younger brother traveled around the country with his military family. Kristofferson spent a good deal of his childhood in Brownsville, Texas and as a child he learned to speak Spanish along with his native English. In high school, the family moved to California and he played football and dreamed of becoming a writer like his hero, Ernest Hemingway. He boxed and earned a Golden Gloves award while in high school. At Pomona College he majored in creative writing. In school, Kristofferson suffered frustration at learning his subjects. He was shy, nerdy to others, and whether in class or on the football field he always felt that he had to work extra hard to keep up with his peers.
A self-described late developer, Kristofferson won a prestigious fiction-writing contest, and he attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship where he played on the Rugby team. At Oxford, fellow students teased the American by calling him “Tex.” While there, he developed a lifelong love of poetry and the works of William Blake. After college, Kristofferson went into the Army and became a Ranger captain. He was an airborne-trained helicopter pilot who loved to fly daredevil flights while posted in Germany. Offered a position as English literature instructor at the United States West Point Academy, he turned it down to try his songwriting abilities in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1965, he took a job as a $58-a-week night janitor at the Columbia recording studios in Nashville. Determined to break into the country music industry, Kristofferson wrote songs and worked as a bartender and construction worker to support himself.
While some artists such as Roger Miller recorded his songs, it was not until Johnny Cash recorded “Sunday Morning Coming Down” that Kristofferson finally was recognized as a talented songwriter. In 1969, he met Janis Joplin and they drank tequila and got high together. They had a relationship which lasted for a month at her home in San Francisco. After she died, Kristofferson was touched by her recording of his song “Me and Bobby McGee.” As the 1970s began, Kristofferson performed at clubs and in the recording studio as a “functioning alcoholic.” He was always drinking and indulging in one-night stands in Nashville and on the road. In 1970, he met Barbra Streisand at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. They dated but his club dates soon broke up any chance of a relationship. In 1974, he acted opposite Ellen Burstyn in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” and in 1976, he played opposite Streisand in “A Star is Born.” He continued in films with “Semi-Tough,” 1977 and “Heaven’s Gate.” 1980. In the ’80s, Kristofferson worked in small clubs and appeared in TV movies. In 1995, Kristofferson bounced back into the mainstream with his performance in “Lone Star” as a ruthless sheriff. He appeared in Merchant and Ivory’s “A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries” and a vampire hunter in “Blade” in 1998.
He married his first wife, high school sweetheart Fran Beer, in 1961. The couple had a daughter, Tracy, born in 1962 and son Kris, born in 1968. While trying to raise his family in Nashville under their tight financial difficulties, his marriage ended in divorce in 1969. He married beautiful singer Rita Coolidge in 1973 and they produced daughter Casey in 1974. His drinking and misbehavior on the road ruined his marriage to the singer and they divorced in 1980. Because his wife had a busy career, Kristofferson agreed to raise their daughter Casey. It was during this time the actor kicked his drug and chemical dependency for the sake of his daughter.
He met Pepperdine law student Lisa Meyers in a Malibu gym in 1982. The couple married the following year and they produced five children, son Jesse in 1984, son Jody in 1985, son Johnny in 1988, daughter Kelly in 1991 and son Blake in 1994. In 1990, the family left Los Angeles and moved to a Japanese-style home on the island of Maui. Today, Kristofferson places more pride on being a devoted family man than his legacy as a country music songwriter.
In 1986, at the age of 50, Kristofferson reached a sad point in his life when his agent died, his manager died, and his record company went bankrupt. The actor has periodically suffered from bouts of depression in the 1980s. Lean and boyish looking with a trademark gray beard, he prefers to dress in black. In his days after “A Star is Born” he was a sex symbol with his thick chestnut hair and blue aqua eyes. He appeared nude in Playgirl in 1976. He has remained clean and sober since 1980.
In early May 1999, he underwent cardiac bypass surgery at a San Francisco hospital, returning to his home on Maui, Hawaii for recovery.
Link to Wikipedia biography