Kris Kristofferson (born June 22, 1936) is a retired country singer, songwriter and actor from Brownsville, TX, best known for the hits he wrote and recorded in the late 1960s.

Many of Kristofferson’s hits are best known through artists who covered them. Me and Bobby McGee was popularized by Janis Joplin, For The Good Times by Ray Price, and Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down by Johnny Cash. His 1971 album The Silver Tongued Devil and I was a commercial success. He released a few more albums in the 1970s, but focused more on acting toward the middle and end of the decade.

In the 1980s, he joined with fellow outlaw country superstars Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings to form Highwaymen, whose self-titled debut album was a critical and commercial success.

Kristofferson was more than a recording artist—he was a Rhodes Scholar, studied at Oxford, aspired to be a novelist, and won a Golden Globe as an actor for his role in A Star Is Born (1976).

He was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame class of 2004.

His last performance was on February 5, 2020 and in January 2021, it was announced that he had retired.