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

The star was surrounded by his family, but no cause of death was given, Variety reported on Sunday.

Just a month before his death, the Golden Globe winner put his ranch on Northern California’s Mendocino Coast up for sale for $17.2 million, according to The Sacramento Bee.

He announced his retirement in a 2021 statement from his management, revealing that he had slowly retreated from the spotlight.

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

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

He was just as successful on the big screen.

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

“Blade” began as a trilogy series, with the second installment premiering in 2002 and the third in 2004. He reprized his role as Whistler in all subsequent films, playing Blade’s mentor (Wesley Snipes).

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

He recalled hearing country and Norteño music and songs from Mexico and South Texas on 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 eleven years there – my first eleven – and the border 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 head.”

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

He said this was the closest he came to writing a love song at that time.

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.

His family eventually settled in San Mateo, California, a suburb of San Francisco, when he was a teenager.

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

When he was just 18, he was published in The Atlantic Monthly after winning first prize in a short story contest hosted by the outlet.

The two compositions were titled ‘Gone Are the Days’ and ‘The Rock’.

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

He studied literature at the University of Oxford 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 Army, beginning his service in 1960. He trained as a helicopter pilot at Fort Rucker in Alabama, according to VA News, and later served in West Germany with the 8th Infantry Division.

But even while in Germany, he continued to write songs and perform in a band with his fellow soldiers, the outlet reported.

After returning from Germany, he was even offered a spot teaching literature at the prestigious West Point, but he declined after learning that he would have to prepare lesson plans, a feat that terrified him.

In 1965, he moved to Nashville, where he resigned from the Army and vowed to make it in the industry – and he did.

He worked irregular night shifts as a janitor at Columbia Studios, giving country music stars demo tapes of his songs.

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,” winning the 1970 song trophy. won the Country Music Association’s year. .

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

Before her death in 1970, he had a brief relationship with Janis Joplin, as they were introduced 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 her home in California, which ended up being a three-week trip.

In 1976, he made a big step in his acting career, starring as John Norman Howard, a failing rock star, in the third version of ‘A Star Is Born’.

Kristofferson starred opposite Barbra Streisand, his love interest, Esther Hoffman.

Their performance became the third highest-grossing film of 1976, according to Vox.

While other reviews of the film were mixed and it was generally disliked by critics, the play won a Golden Globe for “Best Motion Picture” in 1977, earning Kristofferson his first film award.

In 1985, he formed the country supergroup ‘Highwaymen’ with Cash, Jennings and Willie Nelson, which turned out to be legendary.

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

Even after the music group broke up, they remained close friends, with Nelson and Kristofferson still occasionally playing music together after the deaths of Jennings in 2002 and Cash in 2003.

Over the course of his career, Kristofferson received many awards and honors.

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

In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

In 2016, Kristofferson was diagnosed with Lyme disease after doctors told him for years that he had Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

He suffered from debilitating memory loss, something he described in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone.

After three weeks of treatment for Lyme disease, his wife said he was “suddenly back,” even though both good and bad days continued.

It was also during that interview when Kristofferson admitted that he “had no worries” about controlling his own life.

“Somehow I just slipped into it and it worked,” he told the outlet. ‘It’s not up to me – or up to you. I’m lucky that life lasted this long because I did so many things that could have gotten me out of it.”

“But somehow I always feel like He knows what He’s doing. So far so good, and it will probably stay that way.”

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

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

In 1973 he married singer Rita Coolidge, and 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.