Kris Kristofferson

Lone Star (1996 film) reinvigorated Kristofferson's acting career, and he soon appeared in Blade, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, Fire Down Below, Tim Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes and Payback (movie). Martin is a member of Mensa International. In spite of the success of Highwaymen 2 in 1990, Kristofferson's solo recording career slipped significantly in the early 1990s, though he continued to successfully record with the Highwaymen. Martin's personal collection has at one time included the art of O'Keeffe, Twachtman, Diebenkorn, de Kooning, Kline, Twombly, Frankenthaler, Hopper, Hockney, Lichtenstein, and Picasso. Kristofferson also appeared in Amerika at about the same time; the mini-series was controversial, hypothesizing life under Communist domination. Martin is also an avid art collector, particularly modern American art, and a trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 1985, Kristoferson starred in Trouble in Mind and released Repossessed a politically aware album that was a country success, particularly "They Killed Him" (also performed by Bob Dylan), a tribute to his heroes, including Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus, and Mohandas Gandhi. In 2002, Martin adapted the Carl Sternheim play The Underpants, which ran Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company.

Their first album, Highwaymen was a huge success, and the supergroup continued working together for a time. In 2001, Martin hosted the 73rd Annual Academy Awards. Nelson and Kristofferson continued their partnership, and added Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash to form the supergroup The Highwaymen. In 1993, Martin wrote the play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, which had a successful run in several American cities. Music from Songwriter (an album of duets between Nelson and Kristofferson) was a massive country success. He appeared in a version of Waiting for Godot as Vladimir (with Robin Williams as Estragon). The latter also starred Willie Nelson and Kristofferson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. They later appeared in the collection Pure Drivel.

He then married again, to Lisa Meyers, and concentrated on films for a time, appearing in The Lost Honor of Kathryn Beck, Flashpoint and Songwriter. Throughout the 90s, after Tina Brown took over The New Yorker, Martin wrote various pieces for the magazine. In 1982, Kristofferson participated (with Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, and Brenda Lee) on The Winning Hand, a country success that failed to break into mainstream audiences. In 1999, Martin and Goldie Hawn starred in a remake of the 1970 Neil Simon comedy, The Out-of-Towners. Kristofferson's next film was Heaven's Gate, a phenomenal failure that temporarily ended his acting career. Martin starred in the Ron Howard film, Parenthood in 1989. Meanwhile, more artists were taking his songs to the top of the charts, including Lena Martell ("One Day at a Time") and Willie Nelson, whose Willie Nelson Sings Kris Kristofferson LP was a smash success. That same year, Roxanne, a film he cowrote, won him a Writers Guild of America award and more importantly, the recognition from Hollywood and the public that he was more than a comedian.

His next film, Freedom Road, did not earn a theatrical release in the US and he divorced Rita Coolidge. In 1987, Martin joined comedian John Candy in the John Hughes film, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. In spite of his success with Streisand, Kristofferson's career was heading downward with the non-charting ninth album, Shake Hands with the Devil. It was originally entitled The Three Caballeros and Martin was to be teamed with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. He continued acting, in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Vigilante Force, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, and A Star Is Born (with Barbra Streisand). In 1986, Martin joined fellow Saturday Night Live veterans Martin Short and Chevy Chase in Three Amigos!, which was directed by John Landis, and written by Martin, Lorne Michaels and Randy Newman. Artists like Ronnie Milsap and Johnny Duncan continued to record Kristofferson's material with much success, but his own rough voice and anti-pop sound kept his own audience to a minimum. Martin was in two more Reiner-directed comedies after The Jerk: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid in 1982, and The Man with Two Brains in 1983.

However, his fifth album, Spooky Lady's Sideshow was a commercial failure, setting the trend for most of the rest of his career. The film was a financial failure; Martin's comment at the time was "I don't know what to blame, other than it's me and not a comedy.". With his new wife, Kristofferson released an album called Full Moon, another success buoyed by numerous hit singles and Grammy nominations. To prepare for that film, he took acting lessons from the director, Herbert Ross, and spent months learning how to tap dance. He appeared in Blume in Love (directed by Paul Mazursky) and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (directed by Sam Peckinpah) and also married Rita Coolidge. It emboldened him to try his hand at his first serious film, Pennies From Heaven, a movie he was anxious to do because of the desire to avoid being typecast. For the next few years, Kristofferson focused on acting. He was executive producer for a prime-time TV series starring Martin Mull and a late-night series called Twilight Theater.

Kristofferson's 1972 fourth album, Jesus Was a Capricorn began slow but the third single, "Why Me", was a success and significantly increased album sales. Stanley Kubrick met with him to discuss him starring in an early, screwball comedy version of Traumnovelle (Kubrick later changed his approach to the material). He also swept the Grammies that year with numerous songs nominated and several winning song of the year. The success of The Jerk opened more doors for him. In 1972, he acted in Cisco Pike and released his third album, Border Lord; the album was all-new material and sales were sluggish. The movie was a huge success, grossing $100 million on a budget less than a twentieth of that amount. Not long after, Kristofferson made his acting debut in The Last Movie (directed by Dennis Hopper) and appeared at the Isle of Wight Festival. In 1979, Martin wrote and starred in his first full-length movie, The Jerk, directed by Carl Reiner.

Smith ("Help Me Make It Through the Night") Jerry Lee Lewis ("Me and Bobby McGee"), Patti Page ("I'd Rather Be Sorry") and Peggy Little ("I've Got to Have You"). Kristofferson released his second album, The Silver Tongued Devil and I in 1971; the album was a success and established Kristofferson's career as a recording artist in his own right. The film was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Film, Live Action. In 1971, Janis Joplin, a very influential vocalist, had a #1 pop hit with "Me and Bobby McGee" off her posthumous Pearl, which was followed by more hits from Ray Price ("I Won't Mention It Again", "I'd Rather Be Sorry"), Joe Simon ("Help Me Make It Through the Night"), Bobby Bare ("Please Don't Tell Me How the Story Ends"), O.C. The seven-minute long film was written by and starred Martin. This is the only time an individual has won the same award from these two organizations in the same year for different songs. Martin's first film was a short, The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977). "For the Good Times" (Ray Price) won 'Song of the Year" in 1970 from the Academy of Country Music, while "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (Johnny Cash) won the same award from the Academy's rival, the Country Music Association in the same year. His real goal was to get into film.

Ray Price ("For the Good Times"), Waylon Jennings ("The Taker"), Bobby Bare ("Come Sundown"), Johnny Cash ("Sunday Morning Coming Down") and Sammi Smith ("Help Me Make It Through the Night") all recorded successful versions of his songs in the early 1970s. But unknown to his audience, stand-up comedy was "just an accident" for him. In spite of his failure as a recording artist, Kristofferson's compositions were still in high demand. By the end of the 1970s, he had acquired the kind of following normally reserved for rock stars, with his tour appearances typically occurring at sold-out arenas filled with tens of thousands of screaming fans. Sales were poor.
. His debut album for Monument was Kristofferson, which included a few new songs as well as many of his previous hits. A typical gag might be interrupted for a sip from a glass of water, and just as he was about to speak again, he forcefully spits the water onto the floor.

Kristofferson signed to Monument Records as a recording artist. The label was run by Fred Foster, also manager of Columbine Music, Kristofferson's songwriting label. His style is off kilter and ironic, and sometimes makes fun of stand-up comedy traditions. He also gained some success as a performer himself, due to Johnny Cash's introduction of Kristofferson at the Newport Folk Festival. It mixes philosophical riffs with sudden spurts of "happy feet", deft banjo playing with balloon depictions of concepts like venereal disease. The following year, Kristofferson signed to Epic Records and released a single, "Golden Idol"/"Killing Time", but the song was not successful. Within the next few years, more Kristofferson originals hit the charts, performed by Roy Drusky ("Jody and the Kid"), Billy Walker & the Tennessee Walkers ("From the Bottle to the Bottom"), Ray Stevens ("Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down"), Jerry Lee Lewis ("Once More with Feeling") Faron Young ("Your Time's Comin'") and Roger Miller ("Me and Bobby McGee", "Best of all Possible Worlds", "Darby's Castle"). In these and his two other albums, Martin's stand-up comedy was self-referential, sometimes self-mocking. In 1966, Dave Dudley released a successful Kristofferson single, "Viet Nam Blues". Both albums won Grammys for Best Comedy Recording in 1977 and 1978.

He and his wife soon divorced. Both were million sellers. He worked a variety of odd jobs while struggling to make it in the music business, burdened with expensive medical bills as a result of his son's defective esophagus. A top 40 hit King Tut, from the album, released in 1978, was backed by the Toot Uncommons (better known as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). Kristofferson moved to Nashville after resigning his commission in 1965, intent on becoming a professional songwriter. His next album, A Wild and Crazy Guy, was an even bigger success reaching the number two spot on the chart, and spawning another catch phrase, this time based on an SNL skit where Martin and Dan Aykroyd played a couple of bumbling Czechoslovakian playboys. Kristofferson sent some of his compositions to a friend's relative, Marijohn Wilkin, a successful Nashville, Tennessee songwriter. The album was a huge success; one of its tracks, Excuse Me, helped establish a national catch phrase.

During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany and returned to music and forming a band. That exposure, together with appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL), led to his first of four comedy albums, Let's Get Small. He joined the United States Army and became a helicopter pilot. In the mid-1970s he made frequent appearances as a stand-up comedian on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a master's degree in English literature and married an old girlfriend, Fran Beir. He continued to write, earning an Emmy nomination for his work on Van Dyke and Company in 1975. While in England, Kristofferson began writing songs and working with manager Larry Parnes; he recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson but was unsuccessful. He appeared at San Francisco's The Boarding House among other locations.

Students of Merton College later voted that the college should erect a statue of Kristofferson, naked astride a motorcycle of his choice, in Front Quad but funds were never made available. He then started performing his own material, sometimes as an opening act for groups such as the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Carpenters, and sometimes appearing on camera:. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University (Merton College, Oxford) after previously attending Pomona College. Martin also wrote for John Denver (a neighbor of his in Aspen, Colorado at one point) and The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour. He was born in Brownsville, Texas and moved around a lot as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California, where he graduated high school. Martin, along with the other writers for that show, won an Emmy Award in 1969. He is best known for hits like "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", many of which were co-written with Shel Silverstein or Fred Foster. A girlfriend helped him get his first real job in 1967, as a comedy writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, the show she was on as a dancer.

Kris Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an influential country music songwriter, singer and actor. Nevertheless, his time there changed his life:. Martin majored in philosophy at California State University, Long Beach, but dropped out. Martin worked at the Bird Cage Theater in Knott's Berry Farm and at the Magic Shop at Disneyland as a teenager, where he developed his talents for magic, juggling, playing the banjo and creating balloon animals. Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, musician and composer born in Waco, Texas and raised in Orange County, California.

Looney Tunes: Back In Action (2003). Cheaper by the Dozen (2003). Bringing Down the House (2003). Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2002, TV).

Novocaine (2001). Fantasia 2000 (1999) host. Bowfinger (1999). The Out-of-Towners, (1999).

The Prince of Egypt (1998, voice). The Spanish Prisoner (1997). Bilko (1996). Sgt.

HouseSitter (1992). Grand Canyon (1991). Father of the Bride (1991). Story (1991), also written by Martin.

L.A. My Blue Heaven (1990). Parenthood (1989). Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988).

Pennies from Heaven (1981). The Jerk, (1979) also co-written by Martin. The Muppet Movie (1979). Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, (1978).

Sgt. The Absent-Minded Waiter (1977) (short). The Steve Martin Brothers (1981). Comedy is Not Pretty! (1979).

Shopgirl (2001). Pure Drivel (1998). Story and Roxanne: Two Screenplays (1997). L.A.