Up for auction "A Star Is Born" Kris Kristofferson Hand Signed 10X8 Color Photo. This item is certified authentic by Todd Mueller Autographs and comes with their Certificate of Authenticity.
ES-4803
Kristoffer Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Among his songwriting credits are the songs "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night", all of which were hits for other artists. Kristofferson composed his own songs and collaborated with Nashville songwriters such as Shel Silverstein. In 1985, Kristofferson joined fellow country artists Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash in forming the country music supergroup the Highwaymen, and formed a key creative force in the outlaw country music movement that eschewed the Nashville music machine in favor of independent songwriting and producing. In 2004, Kristofferson was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. As an actor, he is known for his roles in Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), Blume in Love (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), A Star Is Born (1976) (which earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor), Convoy (1978), Heaven's Gate (1980), Lone Star (1996), Stagecoach (1986), and the Blade film trilogy (1998–2004). Kristoffer Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas, to Mary Ann (née Ashbrook) and Lars Henry Kristofferson, a U.S. Army Air Corps officer (later a U.S. Air Force major general). His paternal grandparents emigrated from Sweden, while his mother had English, Scots-Irish, German, Swiss-German, and Dutch ancestry] Kristofferson's paternal grandfather was an officer in the Swedish Army. When Kristofferson was a child, his father pushed him towards a military career. Kristofferson moved around frequently as a youth because of his father's military service, and they settled down in San Mateo, California. He graduated from San Mateo High School in 1954. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson enrolled in Pomona College that same year. His early writing included essays which won prizes, and "The Rock" and "Gone Are the Days" were published in The Atlantic Monthly. These early stories reveal the roots of Kristofferson's passions and concerns. "The Rock" is about a geographical feature that resembled the form of a woman, while the latter was about a racial incident. At the age of 17, Kristofferson took a summer job with a dredging contractor on Wake Island. He called it "the hardest job I ever had". Kristofferson attended Pomona College and experienced his first dose of fame in 1958 when he appeared in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd" on March 31 for his achievements in collegiate rugby union, American football, and track and field. He and his classmates revived the Claremont Colleges Rugby Club in 1958, which has remained a Southern California rugby institution. Kristofferson graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in literature. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year. In a 2004 interview with Pomona College Magazine, Kristofferson mentioned philosophy professor Frederick Sontag as an important influence in his life. Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied at Merton College.[10] While at Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing, played rugby for his college, and began writing songs. At Oxford, he became acquainted with fellow Rhodes scholar, art critic, and poet Michael Fried. With the help of his manager, Larry Parnes, Kristofferson recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson. Parnes was working to sell Kristofferson as "a Yank at Oxford" to the British public; Kristofferson was willing to accept that promotional approach if it helped his singing career, which he hoped would enable him to progress towards his goal of becoming a novelist. This early phase of his music career was unsuccessful In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a B.Phil. degree in English literature. The following year in 1961, he married his longtime girlfriend, Frances Mavia Beer. In 1973, Kristofferson received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Pomona College during Alumni Weekend, where he was accompanied by fellow performers Johnny Cash and Rita Coolidge. His award was presented to him by one of his Pomona mentors, Professor Fred Sontag. Kristofferson, under pressure from his family, joined the U.S. Army, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and attained the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot after receiving flight training at Fort Rucker, Alabama. He also completed Ranger School. During the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany as a member of the 8th Infantry Division. During this time, he resumed his music career and formed a band. In 1965, when his tour in Germany ended, Kristofferson was given an assignment to teach English literature at West Point.[17] Instead, he decided to leave the Army and pursue songwriting. His family disowned him because of his career decision and sources are unclear on whether they reconciled. They saw it as a rejection of everything they stood for even though Kristofferson has said he is proud of his time in the military, and received the Veteran of the Year Award at the 2003 American Veterans Awards ceremony. After leaving the army in 1965, Kristofferson moved to Nashville. He worked at a variety of odd jobs while struggling for success in music while burdened with medical expenses resulting from his son's defective esophagus. He and his wife soon divorced. He got a job sweeping floors at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville. He met June Carter there and asked her to give Johnny Cash a tape of his. She did, but Cash put it on a large pile with others. He also worked as a commercial helicopter pilot for south Louisiana firm Petroleum Helicopters International (PHI), based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Kristofferson recalled of his days as a pilot, "That was about the last three years before I started performing, before people started cutting my songs. I would work a week down here [in south Louisiana] for PHI, sitting on an oil platform and flying helicopters. Then I'd go back to Nashville at the end of the week and spend a week up there trying to pitch the songs, then come back down and write songs for another week. I can remember 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' I wrote sitting on top of an oil platform. I wrote 'Bobby McGee' down here, and a lot of them [in south Louisiana]." Weeks after giving Carter his tapes, Kristofferson landed a helicopter in Cash's front yard, gaining his full attention.[24] A story about Kristofferson having a beer in one hand and some songs in the other upon arrival was reputed, but has been disproven, with Kristofferson saying, "It was still kind of an invasion of privacy that I wouldn't recommend. To be honest, I don't think he was there... John had a pretty creative memory." But upon hearing "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," Cash decided to record it, and that year Kristofferson won Songwriter of the Year at the Country Music Awards.