Musician & Actor
Kris Kristofferson
Notes from Evan Smith
"Yes, he really is 70, and yes, he really looks that good in person. Yes, he really was a Rhodes scholar, and, yes, he really was a Golden Gloves boxer--in fact, he could still beat me up. And yes, he really was a helicopter pilot in the Army. And, yes, he really did quit the military to sweep floors at a Nashville recording studio, so desperate was he to write songs and make music for a living. And, yes, he really has achieved almost as much success and fame as an actor, and an Academy Award nominee at that, one whose credits include more than fifty films ranging from the 1976 remake of A Star is Born, alongside and in various compromising entanglements with Barbara Streisand, to 1996's Lone Star, one of the finest movies ever made about and in Texas. And, yes, although it's easy to forget, Kris Kristofferson really is from here. Born in Brownsville, raised in Calfornia, educated at Pomona College and Oxford University, he's lived enough lives, with enough guts and gusto, for every single one of you out there. Over the years his creative collaborators have included fellow Texans Janis Joplin, Ray Price, and Willie Nelson, along with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Patti Page, and also Sam Peckinpaugh, Dennis Hopper, John Sayles, Ethan Hawke, Luke Wilson, Richard Linklater -- literally, a cast of thousands. His latest record, This Old Road, was released in March. His latest move, The Wendell Baker Story, is just now or about to be in theaters. It's good to see, and not at all surprising to learn, that the old boy still has a lot of life left in him. We should all have so much." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 5.18.06
