Irvin Kershner DIes

Director, producer, and sometime actor Irvin Kershner died Saturday in Los Angeles after what is being described as a long illness. Kershner was 87.

Irvin Kershner was born April 29, 1923 in Philadelphia. He began his career in 1950 after graduating from the film school at the University of Southern California. Kershner’s early work was producing documentaries from the United States Information Service.

Throughout his career Irvin Kershner has directed numerous films and television shows; but he is most famous for his direction of “Star Wars V: the Empire Strikes Back” and “Never Say Never Again” – Sir Sean Connery’s return as James Bond. Star Wars creator George Lucas tapped his old college professor for the directorial role in the second installment of his Star Wars trilogy. With his directorial role in “Never Say Never Again”, Kershner was the only American – to date – to direct a James Bond film.

Kershner made the occasional appearance in front of the camera, two of which were as Walters in the Steven Seagal movie “On Deadly Ground” and as Zebedee in “The Lat Temptation of Christ”. While Kershner is best known for his Star Wars and Bond film direction, among his other directorial roles are: 35 episodes of the television series “The Rebel”, an episode of “Ben Casey”, “S*P*Y*S”, “The Return of a Man Called Horse”, “Raid on Entebbe”, the “Eyes of Laura Mars”, “RoboCop 2”, and an episode of “Seaquest 2032”. Kershner lent his voice and expertise on several video commentaries and making of documentaries related to his films.

Earlier this year Kershner was presented with the Life Career Award from the Academy of Science Fictio, Fantasy and Horror Films.