<\/p>\n
\n\tSupremely gifted songwriter, singer and actor Kris Kristofferson<\/a> died Saturday<\/a> (Sept. 28) at his home in Maui, Hawaii, at age 88.<\/p>\n \n\tBorn Kristoffer Kristofferson in Brownsville, Texas in June 1936; he family soon moved to California. Kristofferson\u2019s short stories were published in The Atlantic Monthly <\/em>and soon after, he became a Rhodes Scholar who studied at Oxford University in England. His life also included time as a Golden Gloves boxer, and an Army ranger who also flew helicopters (and famously once landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash\u2019s lawn in order to get Cash to listen to a demo tape), an A-list actor, a writer and a creator equally inspired by the works of William Blake as Bob Dylan. In the Army, Kristofferson rose to the rank of captain, but when he was commissioned to teach English at West Point, he abandoned that opportunity in order to head to Nashville to pursue songwriting.<\/p>\n \n\tHe began working as a janitor at Nashville\u2019s Columbia Studios, which allowed him to listen in on sessions including Dylan\u2019s 1966 Blonde on Blonde<\/em> album. His nuanced, elegant lyricism style led to Kristofferson earning multiple No. 1s as a writer of songs made famous by other artists, including Ray Price, Johnny Cash, Roger Miller and Sammi Smith. In 1970, he issued his eponymous first album, Kristofferson<\/em>, which included his own versions of the hits \u201cMe and Bobby McGee,\u201d \u201cHelp Me Make It Through The Night\u201d and \u201cSunday Mornin\u2019 Comin\u2019 Down,\u201d all of which he originally penned. <\/p>\n \n\tHe also earned his own No. 1 country hit with \u201cWhy Me,\u201d and another as part of the country supergroup The Highwaymen, with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.<\/p>\n \n\tAs an actor, he starred in films and television series including Alice Doesn\u2019t Live Here Anymore<\/em>, A Star Is Born<\/em> (in a Golden Globe-nominated performance opposite Barbra Streisand), Blade<\/em> (opposite Wesley Snipes), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid<\/em>, Stagecoach<\/em>, Convoy<\/em>, Songwriter<\/em> and Fire Down Below<\/em>. <\/p>\n \n\tKristofferson was inducted into the\u00a0Country Music Hall of Fame\u00a0in 2004 \u2014 and a decade later, earned the\u00a0Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.<\/p>\n \n\tBelow, we look at 11 songs or albums that Kristofferson had a hand in as an artist or songwriter that reached No. 1 on various Billboard charts.<\/p>\n