Kris Kristofferson, who died at age 88 in his Maui home on Saturday, was a guitar-toting stage performer, a ruggedly handsome movie actor, and an outspoken humanitarian and activist. But at base, he was a thinker-poet who pushed country music in existentialist directions. - The Atlantic
The three-time Oscar winner is co-starring in his son Ronan's debut feature film, Anemone, whose screenplay the two wrote together. Ronan is also a painter; his first international exhibition opens this week in Hong Kong before traveling to Los Angeles and New York. - The Guardian
"A running back turned actor who appeared in scores of TV shows — including groundbreaking 1970s programs such as the sitcom Good Times and the epic miniseries Roots — (he) risked his career to protest demeaning portrayals of Black characters." - The Washington Post (MSN)
"Her astonishing range, as borne out by a stage and screen career that traversed generations, genres and culture levels, had one common denominator: a reverence for the written word. Her gifts — and they were rightly legendary — turned dialogue on the page into verbal music." - Los Angeles Times
Figures from the arts include poet Jericho Brown, violinist Johnny Gandelsman, media artist Tony Cokes, filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, writers Juan Felipe Herrera and Ling Ma, multimedia artist Ebony G. Patterson, choreographer Shamel Pitts, visual artist Wendy Red Star, and young people's lit author Jason Reynolds. - NPR
A beloved musical theater performer, singer-songwriter and activist who won a Tony for Hello, Dolly! (opposite Bette Midler) and an Olivier for The Book of Mormon, Creel died just two months after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. - The Hollywood Reporter
The omnipresence of Judi Dench notwithstanding, Smith’s career was substantial and varied—a testament to her flexibility as an actor and to her rigor as an artist. - The New Yorker
“Steeped in a neo-Romantic sensibility that owed as much to John Keats as to the Beat Generation and Bob Dylan, Mr. Kristofferson’s work explored themes of freedom and commitment, alienation and desire, darkness and light.” And then he found a second career in Hollywood. - The New York Times
She helped redefine what that meant, too, especially for women. “The face and body may change, but the spirit need not falter, the desire and ability to do what you love need never abate.” - Los Angeles Times (MSN)
Rivers is the one who inspired Niki de Saint Phalle’s iconic Nana figures, but in addition, she was "a bohemian saloniste whose lifestyle was a kind of art making.” - The New York Times
Considered by many the greatest British actress of her formidable generation, she won widespread admiration for such stage and screen performances as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Hedda Gabler and became genuinely beloved for her work in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey. - The Washington Post (MSN)
He and his wife started in 1965 with one Tiffany ceramic vase, purchased for $55 (roughly $548 today). By 1971, they opened Macklowe Gallery in Manhattan, ultimately becoming leading sellers for Tiffany glass, Mucha lithographs, and French cameo glass. (That vase, by the way, is now worth $25,000.) - The New York Times
Cash, whose statue is located in the Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, is the first musician to be represented in the collection. - Washington Post
For decades, Mr. Jameson’s voluminous work — more than 30 books and edited collections as well as reams of journal articles — has been required reading for graduate students (and some precocious undergraduates), not just in literature but also in film studies, architecture and history. - The New York Times
