WHEN Kris Kristofferson left us at the age of 88 earlier this week, most of the media coverage afforded to the great man focused on his remarkable musical career. With a CV boasting some of the greatest songs ever written,

And in 1976, he melded his two worlds with Barbra Streisand’s “A Star is Born,” the second-highest grossing film of its year and a movie that spawned a real hit in the love theme “Evergreen.” After starring in Michael Cimino’s notorious box office bomb “Heaven’s Gate,

Kristofferson has been lauded as a legendary Renaissance man: an Army helicopter pilot, Rhodes scholar, Golden Gloves boxer, literature enthusiast, footballer, silver screen stud and one of the most prolific songwriters of our time.