Before he was acting in Blade movies, Kris Kristofferson worked with some of the best directors of American Cinema. There’s not an actor out there who wouldn’t love to have worked with the same people. But acting was Kristofferson’s second career, and it almost ended in 1980. The man’s life will be the subject of an interesting movie someday.
Kristofferson got his master’s degree in English literature from Oxford University. Then he joined the army and became a helicopter pilot. After all that, he decided to enter the music business. He made his big break by landing a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s yard and personally handing the singer some of his tapes. He later lost his helicopter license for passing out drunk at the controls. He quit drinking in 1976.
His career as a recording artist never lived up to its potential. Other people made hits recording his songs, from Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson to Janis Joplin, but Kristofferson’s own recordings never sold as well as others’.
In 1971, he appeared in The Last Movie, a Dennis Hopper disaster that was supposed to be the sequel to Easy Rider. From there he worked with Paul Mazursky in Blume in Love, Martin Scorsese in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, in the Frank Pierson scripted 2nd remake of A Star Is Born, in Michael Richie’s Semi Tough, and with Sam Peckinpah three times in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and Convoy. Upon the massive financial debacle that was 1980’s Heaven’s Gate, director Michael Camino and Kristofferson bore the stigma of failure and came close to ending their careers completely. In 1996, Kristofferson finally shook the reputation with a chilling performance as the sheriff in John Sayles’ Lone Star.
Kristofferson turns 70 this June, and has taken to smaller roles in major productions, most notably the Blade series, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, and Brian Helgeland’s Payback.
