Kris Kristofferson might have been too handsome for his own good, but he helped country music find a new path.

Imagine writing a song as good as “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.” It must have felt like building the Brooklyn Bridge with your bare hands. “There’s something in a Sunday that makes a body feel alone,” the ballad’s demolished narrator sings through his hangover as he embarks on a weekend stroll in the direction of the void.

The country singer and songwriter, who died on Saturday at 88, tucked enduring aphorisms into tales about facing up to loss.

We look at nearly a dozen No. 1 hits the late Kris Kristofferson earned during his career, as a songwriter and/or artist.

After years as a struggling songwriter, he found his voice with a direct, evocative style that launched his decades-long career as a musician, actor and activist.

Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and A-list Hollywood actor, has died.