Kris Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is an influential country music songwriter, singer and actor. He is best known for hits like "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" Kristofferson is the sole author of most of his songs, but he has collaborated with various other figures of the Nashville scene.

Early life

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Although born in Brownsville, Texas, he moved around much as a youth, finally settling down in San Mateo, California, where he graduated from high school. Kristofferson's father was an Air Force general who pushed his son toward a military career. An aspiring writer, Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University (Merton College, Oxford) after previously attending Pomona College. While in England, Kristofferson began writing songs and working with his manager Larry Parnes; he recorded for Top Rank Records under the name Kris Carson, but was unsuccessful.

In 1960, Kristofferson graduated with a master's degree in English literature and married an old girlfriend, Fran Beer. His studies of literature are surely reflected in his song, "The Best of All Possible Worlds"; the French writer Voltaire satirized this idea, philosophical optimism, in his short novel Candide. He ultimately joined the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of captain. He became a helicopter pilot, which served him well. Later, during the early 1960s, he was stationed in West Germany and returned to music and formed a band. In 1965, he resigned his commission to pursue songwriting. He had just been assigned to become a professor at West Point. Kristofferson sent some of his compositions to a friend's relative, Marijohn Wilkin, a successful Nashville, Tennessee songwriter.

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