Kris Kristofferson, the country music legend and A Star Is Born actor, has died at the age of 88.
The singer-songwriter died peacefully at his home in Maui, Hawaii, on Saturday, family spokesperson Ebie McFarland said.
No cause of death was given but the musician had been suffering from memory loss since he was in his 70s.
Born in Brownsville, Texas, Kristofferson started his music career in the mid-1960s.
Despite being a singer himself, many of his songs were best known as performed by others, including Ray Price’s US number one hit For the Good Times and Janis Joplin’s 1971 single Me And Bobby McGee.
In the mid-1980s he joined forces with Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to create the country supergroup The Highwaymen, releasing three albums before all four returned to their solo careers.
Image: Pic: AP
Former bandmate Nelson said there was “no better songwriter alive” when talking about Kristofferson during a 2009 awards ceremony.
“Everything he writes is a standard and we’re all just going to have to live with that,” Nelson said.
Kristofferson won a Grammy Award for hit Help Me Make It Through The Night and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Image: Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson at a preview of A Star is Born in 1976. Pic: AP
Image: The pair together again at the Grammy Awards in 2011. Pic: AP
As an actor, he won the 1976 Golden Globe Award for best actor after his performance in the romantic drama A Star Is Born opposite Barbra Streisand.
The film was a remake of the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was later adapted into a musical starring Judy Garland and James Mason – and subsequently again in 2018 starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
Image: Members of The Highwaymen, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash in 1985. Pic: AP
Kristofferson also appeared opposite Ellen Burstyn in Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and alongside Wesley Snipes in Marvel’s Blade in 1998.
From caretaker to hitmaker
Before the stage and screen, Kristofferson was a boxer with US organisation Golden Gloves, he also gained a master’s degree in English at the University of Oxford, later turning down an opportunity to teach at a US military academy in New York to pursue songwriting in Nashville.
Hoping for a break into the industry, he worked as a part-time caretaker at Columbia Records’ Music Row studio.
Image: Kristofferson performs at the Country Music Takes Manhattan music festival in 1993. Pic: Joseph Marzullo/MediaPunch /IPX
In a 2006 interview, Kristofferson said he might not have had a career without Cash, who he said put him on stage for the first time.
Joplin, who he had a close relationship with, changed the lyrics to make Bobby McGee a man and cut her version just days before she died in 1970 from a drug overdose. The song became a posthumous number one hit for Joplin.
In 1973, Kristofferson married fellow songwriter Rita Coolidge who he had a successful duet career, earning two Grammy Awards. They divorced in 1980.
The singer is survived by his wife Lisa, his eight children and seven grandchildren, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported.
Tributes to country music legend
Dolly Parton led fans and fellow musicians and actors in paying tribute to Kristofferson.
She described his passing as a “great loss” and said: “I will always love you.”
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Streisand paid tribute to Kristofferson in a post on social media, saying: “The first time I saw Kris performing at the Troubadour club in L.A. I knew he was something special.
“Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script I was developing, which eventually became A Star Is Born.
“My thoughts go to Kris’ wife, Lisa who I know supported him in every way possible.”
Chief executive for the Country Music Hall of Fame Kyle Young said Kristofferson left “a resounding legacy.”
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Donald Trump has announced he will impose a 30% tariff on imports from the European Union from 1 August.
The tariffs could make everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the US.
Mr Trump has also imposed a 30% tariff on goods from Mexico, according to a post from his Truth Social account.
Announcing the moves in separate letters on the account, the president said the US trade deficit was a national security threat.
In his letter to the EU, he wrote: “We have had years to discuss our trading relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, trade Deficits, engendered by your tariff, and non-Tariff, policies, and trade barriers.
“Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from reciprocal.”
In his letter to Mexico, Mr Trump said he did not think the country had done enough to stop the US from turning into a “narco-trafficking playground”.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said today that the EU could adopt “proportionate countermeasures” if the US proceeds with imposing the 30% tariff.
Ms von der Leyen, who heads the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement that the bloc remained ready “to continue working towards an agreement by Aug 1”.
“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she continued.
“We will take all necessary steps to safeguard EU interests, including the adoption of proportionate countermeasures if required.”
Ms von der Leyen has also said imposing tariffs on EU exports would “disrupt essential transatlantic supply chains”.
Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on the X social media platform that Mr Trump’s announcement was “very concerning and not the way forward”.
He added: “The European Commission can count on our full support. As the EU we must remain united and resolute in pursuing an outcome with the United States that is mutually beneficial.”
Mexico’s economy ministry said a bilateral working group aims to reach an alternative to the 30% US tariffs before they are due to take effect.
The country was informed by the US that it would receive a letter about the tariffs, the ministry’s statement said, adding that Mexico was negotiating.
The US imposed a 20% tariff on imported goods from the EU in April but it was later paused and the bloc has since been paying a baseline tariff of 10% on goods it exports to the US.
In May, while the US and EU where holding trade negotiations, Mr Trump threated to impose a 50% tariff on the bloc as talks didn’t progress as he would have liked.
However, he later announced he was delaying the imposition of that tariff while negotiations over a trade deal took place.
As of earlier this week, the EU’s executive commission, which handles trade issues for the bloc’s 27-member nations, said its leaders were still hoping to strike a trade deal with the Trump administration.
Without one, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.
Donald Trump has said he plans to hit Canada with a 35% tariff on imported goods, as he warned of a blanket 15 or 20% hike for most other countries.
In a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the US president wrote: “I must mention that the flow of Fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers.”
Mr Trump’s tariffs were allegedly an effort to get Canada to crack down on fentanyl smuggling, and the US president has expressed frustration with Canada’s trade deficit with the US.
In a statement Mr Carney said: “Throughout the current trade negotiations with the United States, the Canadian government has steadfastly defended our workers and businesses. We will continue to do so as we work towards the revised deadline of August 1.”
He added: “Canada has made vital progress to stop the scourge of fentanyl in North America. We are committed to continuing to work with the United States to save lives and protect communities in both our countries.”
The higher rates would go into effect on 1 August.
Shortly after Mr Trump unveiled his “Liberation Day” tariffs on 2 April, there was a huge sell-off on the financial markets. The US president later announced a 90-day negotiating period, during which a 10% baseline tariff would be charged on most imported goods.
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“We’re just going to say all of the remaining countries are going to pay, whether it’s 20% or 15%. We’ll work that out now,” he said.
He added: “I think the tariffs have been very well-received. The stock market hit a new high today.”
The US and UK signed a trade deal in June, with the US president calling it “a fair deal for both” and saying it will “produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income”.
Sir Keir Starmer said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, adding: “So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength.”
It comes as Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said a new round of talks between Moscow and Washington on bilateral problems could take place before the end of the summer.
A Palestinian activist who was detained for over three months in a US immigration jail after protesting against Israel is suing Donald Trump’s administration for $20m (£15m) in damages.
Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil have filed a claim against the administration alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite as the government sought to deport him over his role in campus protests.
He described “plain-clothed agents and unmarked cars” taking him “from one place to another, expecting you just to follow orders and shackled all the time”, which he said was “really scary”.
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Mahmoud Khalil reunites with family after release
Mr Khalil said he was not presented with an arrest warrant and wasn’t told where he was being taken.
He said the detention centre he was taken to was “as far from humane as it could be” and “a place where you have no rights whatsoever”.
“You share a dorm with over 70 men with no privacy, with lights on all the time, with really terrible food. You’re basically being dehumanised at every opportunity. It’s a black hole,” he added.
Mr Khalil said he would also accept an official apology from the Trump administration.
The Trump administration celebrated Mr Khalil’s arrest, promising to deport him and others whose protests against Israel it declared were “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity”.
Mr Khalil said after around 36 hours in captivity he was allowed to speak to his wife, who was pregnant at the time.
“These were very scary hours, I did not know what was happening on the outside. I did not know that my wife was safe,” he said.
Mr Khalil said administration officials had made “absolutely absurd allegations” by saying he as involved in antisemitic activities and supporting Hamas.
“They are weaponising antisemitism, weaponising anti-terrorism in order to stifle speech,” he said. “What I was engaged in is simply opposing a genocide, opposing war crimes, opposing Columbia University’s complicity in the war on Gaza.”
A State Department spokesperson said its actions toward Mr Khalil were fully supported by the law.
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Asked about missing the birth of his son while he was in prison, Mr Khalil said: “I don’t think there’s any word that can describe the agony and the sadness that I went through, to be deprived from such a divine moment, from a moment that my wife and I had always dreamed about.”
Meanwhile, the deportation case against Mr Khalil is continuing to wind its way through the immigration court system.