He forayed into athletics, started out his adulthood in the military, and made an impression in Hollywood as an actor — but music has been the defining force in Kris Kristofferson’s life.

In the half-century since Kristofferson hung up his Army uniform — as a commissioned officer, he flew helicopters and completed Ranger training before resigning in 1965 — he has enjoyed success as a songwriter, recording artist and performer. Kristofferson brings all that to Honolulu this weekend for a one-nighter Saturday at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.

The part-time Maui resident, now 80, has a lot of history to unpack. Kristofferson could not be reached to comment on his illustrious career, but fans of his work here in the islands were quick to comment on his work as the composer of songs that are now considered American standards, including “Me and Bobby McGee,” “For the Good Times,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” and “Why Me.”

“Quite the haku mele (songwriter), if you ask me. He’s a poet, a storyteller, a musician,” says Ohio fan and Hawaiian music enthusiast Wanda Certo, mentioning “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” a hit for Johnny Cash in 1970, as an example of Kristofferson’s skill as a lyricist.

“First of all, the imagery evoked by the words makes you see exactly what he was seeing, in a rundown neighborhood the night after an obviously normal binge,” Certo said. “He makes you see and feel what he needs you to see. He makes a movie — but with a song, if that makes any sense.”

Movies are also part of Kristofferson’s story. Most fans agree that Kristofferson’s biggest film role was his portrayal of successful but self-destructive rock star John Norman Howard opposite Barbra Streisand in the 1976 remake of “A Star Is Born.” He’s also given noteworthy portrayals of characters ranging from Billy the Kid (“Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”) to what is considered a thinly fictionalized portrait of “From Here to Eternity” novelist James Jones (“A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries”).

Veteran stage actor Allen Cole applauds Kristofferson’s performance in “The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea.”

Singer-actor Jhonny Rox-Hollywood describes Kristofferson’s performance in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” as “flawless.”

“I went to see ‘A Star Is Born’ six times when it first came out in Hawaii,” reminisced Luana Maitland, Hawaiian cultural adviser for the Outrigger Reef. “I saw it three times in one day.”

“My mom was a huge fan of ‘A Star Is Born’ and loved his music,” says musician Brandon Apeles. “I remember he being one of the first artists where I paid attention to songwriters. ‘Help Me Make It Through the Night’ and ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ alone make him a legend. I always wanted to see him live, and wish my mom was alive so I could take her to the show.”

Kristofferson also made history as a member of the Highwaymen with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. The country music supergroup disbanded in the late 1990s when Cash and Jennings became unable to tour, but its legacy lives on.

Caroline Wright, founder of Bluegrass Hawaii, an organization of bluegrass aficionados, says she was “really, really fortunate” to see the Highwaymen when they played at the Blaisdell Arena in 1995.

“Recently I’ve been listening to ‘Casey’s Last Ride,’ Kristofferson’s tune about a lonely adulterous coal miner,” Wright continued. “Listening to this tune in the voice of the man who crafted it is a revelation. What delicacy and tenderness in that gravelly delivery.”

Barbara Saito, longtime vice president of Tom Moffatt Productions, said she counts herself a fan of the quartet.

“I’m so glad he is still singing — so many great songs,” adds kumu hula Hana Aloha La‘akea Perry, listing “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” as one of her favorites.

Entertainment industry veteran Andree Fallas is among the Hawaii residents who’ve met Kristofferson, recalling him as relaxed and down-to-earth.

“I met him years ago at Rick Keefers Sea-West Hawaii Studios on the Big Island,” Fallas recalls. “We ate papaya.”

Recording artist Quintinn Holi also has a Hawaii story. “I met him and Burt Reynolds on a dinner cruise in the ’70s in Kona,” Holi says. “They came back to the hotel with us, had a blast.”

Slack-key guitarist Kawika Kahiapo says he met Kristofferson “in ’96 or ’97” on the way home from a concert in Las Vegas. “He had just finished six weeks of a live show in Vegas. When he found out we were from Hawaii, he commented, ‘I can’t wait to get out of this hellhole and back home to Hana.’”

Neighbors on Maui compliment Kristofferson for contributing to fundraisers that have helped pay for equipment at Hana schools.

Born into a military family (his father retired as an Air Force major general), Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, graduated with a degree in English literature, and turned down a post teaching at West Point to make music his career.

As his musical star rose, he was also drawn to film roles. But songwriting and performing remained constants.

In recent years, however, fans, friends and family members watched helplessly at Kristofferson suffered from increasingly debilitating memory loss. It was feared he might suffer from Alzheimer’s, or from the long-term effects of blows to his head received during his college years, when he boxed and played football and rugby.

Then, early last year, a doctor decided to test him for Lyme disease, a highly infectious disease that is transmitted to humans by infected ticks. The test came back positive, and when Kristofferson’s doctors stopped treating him for Alzheimer’s and depression and instead put him on treatment for Lyme disease, his memory was largely restored.

That has allowed him to resume performing.

Kristofferson will certainly be making memories for many on Saturday in the concert hall.

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SIX MEMORABLE KRISTOFFERSON SONGS

1. “Me and Bobby McGee” — Janis Joplin’s recording, made a few days before her death in 1970, topped the Billboard 100 in 1971 and was the biggest hit of Joplin’s short career. Country music artist Roger Miller was the first person to record it, reaching No. 12 on Billboard’s Country Singles chart in 1969. Kristofferson included it on his first album, “Kristofferson,” in 1970. More than 50 other artists have recorded it. Robert Morgenweck, who describes himself as “a karaoke host off and on for 15 years or so,” says the song is an all-time karaoke bar favorite: “‘Me and Bobby McGee’ is in the top five songs women sing — the top three if they are drinking.”
2. “For the Good Times” — Country singer Ray Price topped the Billboard Country Singles chart and reached No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 with his version of the song in 1970. The song was first recorded by Bill Nash in 1968; Kristofferson included it on “Kristofferson.” More than 30 other artists have recorded it.
3. “Help Me Make It Through the Night” — Kristofferson included it on “Kristofferson.” Sammi Smith’s version topped the Billboard Country Singles Chart and reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. At least 20 other artists have recorded it.
4. “Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again)” — Kristofferson’s wistful description of a lost love, recorded for his second album, “The Silver Tongued Devil and I,” reached No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
5. “Why Me” (often referred to as “Why Me, Lord”) — Kristofferson’s biggest hit as a recording artist was written during a low period in his life; it topped the Billboard Country Singles chart and reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.
6. “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” — Ray Stevens recorded it in 1969 and Kristofferson included it on his debut album, but it was Johnny Cash’s recording that topped the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1970. Kristofferson told an NPR interviewer in 2013 that this is the song “that allowed me to quit working for a living.” Local fan Aaron Johnsen says: “I have had a lot of hungover Sundays, and that song resonates. I also thought it was great of him to stand up for Sinead O’Connor when she was getting booed at the Bob Dylan 30th anniversary. We got tickets and look forward to seeing this Highwayman.”

FIVE MEMORABLE FILM PERFORMANCES

1. Billy the Kid opposite James Coburn as Pat Garrett in Sam Peckinpah’s controversial classic “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” (1973). Tip: Look for Peckinpah’s “preview version” (released on video in 1988) and avoid the re-edited version released to theaters in 1973.
2. David, a divorced rancher, who becomes a positive presence in the lives of a down-on-her-luck singer (Ellen Burstyn) and her at-risk son (Alfred Lutter) in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More” (1974).
3. Jim Cameron, merchant ship officer, whose love for a lonely widow provokes the jealousy of her son in “The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea” (1976).
4. John Norman Howard, a talented but self-destructive singer/songwriter rock star, helps an aspiring singer-songwriter, played by Barbra Streisand, get her career started, then spirals into disaster when her career eclipses his in “A Star is Born” (1976).
5. James Averill, the enigmatic lawman in “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), director Michael Cimino’s sprawling tale of a fictional range war between land barons and European immigrants in 1890s Wyoming. One of the biggest box office disasters in Hollywood history, it since been reappraised and described by some film historians as a “masterpiece.”