From 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' and 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' to 'Feeling Mortal,' Variety picks 10 Kris Kristofferson immortal classics.

Kris Kristofferson was a generational singer-songwriter whose craftsmanship made country music feel broader and deeper.

Kris Kristofferson wrote some of the best songs in country music history. Here are five songs made famous by other artists.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose,” Joplin sang in her signature blues-rock yowl — perhaps the best-known piece of wisdom in Kristofferson’s very wise catalog. “Me and Bobby McGee” topped the Hot 100 in March 1971, less than six months after Joplin’s death at age 27.

Kris Kristofferson, an Oxford-educated Rhodes Scholar and Army veteran who wrote hit songs for Janis Joplin and Johnny Cash before starring in Hollywood movies, died Saturday at his home in Maui, a family spokesperson said Sunday evening. He was 88 and no cause of death was offered.

After years as a struggling songwriter, he found his voice with a direct, evocative style that launched his decades-long career as a musician, actor and activist.

We look at nearly a dozen No. 1 hits the late Kris Kristofferson earned during his career, as a songwriter and/or artist.

The country singer and songwriter, who died on Saturday at 88, tucked enduring aphorisms into tales about facing up to loss.

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.