Kris started writing at Pomona college in the mid 1950s, was Phi Beta Kappa and graduated summa cum laude in literature. After Pomona, he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, where he boxed, played rugby, and starting writing songs.
Born into an Airforce family, Kris himself enlisted and completed ranger school in the early 1960s. Kris left the Airforce to focus on music, and was disowned by his family for it. Some of my favorite tracks from his earlier days
Border Lord
The lights of Magdala
Kiss the world goodbye

His filmography is legendary, and includes three Peckinpah films as well as a Golden Globe for A Star is Born with Barbara Streisand.

My personal favorite artist from this generation of outlaw country singers (forgive me Willy). His entire biography is fascinating, but what I admire most about him is how good a person he seems to have been.

The story that, to my mind, most demonstrates how great he was concerns Sinead O'Conner.

In 1992 Sinead played on SNL and tore up a picture of Pope Jean Paul II in protest of the abuses against children perpetrated and covered up by high-ranking members of the Catholic church. She knew, and she tried to tell the world, and the world shamed her for it. Sinead played at the Bob Dylan tribute concert that year, and she was booed by the audience. Kris introduced her as an “artist whose name has become synonymous with courage and integrity,” which she most certainly was but which did not become true in popular culture for two decades. Kris went up to Sinead on stage and told her "don't let the bastards get you down".

Rest Easy Kris.

NB: Kris and Sinead had a complicated relationship from the outside.