Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar who became a superstar songwriter, singer and actor, has died.

A family spokeswoman says Kristofferson died at his home in Hawaii on Saturday. He was 88. 

Kristofferson brought a gritty realism to country music with compositions like “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Help Me Make it Through the Night” and and “Me and Bobby McGee.”

As an actor, he played the leading man opposite Barbra Streisand and Ellen Burstyn, but also did shoot-out Westerns and cowboy dramas. With his long hair and bell-bottomed slacks, he represented a new breed of country songwriters with his peers like Willie Nelson, John Prine and Tom T. Hall.

Kris Kristofferson and the story of “Me and Bobby McGee”

 Kris Kristofferson’s most famous song is based on a Federico Fellini film. Kristofferson wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” after watching the movie “La Strada” and came up with the idea of a man and a woman on the road. Monument Records founder Fred Foster suggested the title “Me and Bobby McKee” – that’s McKEE, with a “K” – but Kristofferson misheard it. Bobby McKee was a female secretary in Foster’s building. Janis Joplin, who had a close relationship with Kristofferson, switched the genders in the song and recorded her version just days before she died in 1970.

Kris Kristofferson landed a helicopter in Johnny Cash’s yard

Part of the mythology of Kris Kristofferson is that he tried to get Johnny Cash’s attention by landing a helicopter on Cash’s lawn. Kristofferson really did do that. He flew helicopters as a captain in the U-S Army. He told reporters in 1998 he was working as a janitor at Columbia Records and pitched every song he ever wrote to Cash, but Cash didn’t pick up on any of them. Kristofferson said he landed the helicopter to make an impression. Kristofferson said he could not remember what the song was, but Cash had told him it was “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.”