Irvin Kershner
Irvin Kershner ( born April 29, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † November 27, 2010 in Los Angeles ) was an American film director and occasional actor.
Life
Kershners youth was marked by music and art. In its early years the music was his main activity, he played violin, viola and composed. He attended the Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia and later went to New York and Princetown to go into teaching with the painter Hans Hofmann. He then moved to Los Angeles where he studied photography at the Art Center College of Design.
Kershner began his film career at the School of Cinema, University of Southern California, where he taught photography and attended film courses under Slavko Vorkapić. Kershner got a job as still photographer to work in cooperation with the United States Information Agency in the film project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iran, which finally moved to a director and cinematographer of documentaries in Iran, Greece and Turkey.
As Kershner returned to the United States, he developed together with Paul Coates, the documentary series Confidential File for U.S. television. Kershner worked on this series as a scriptwriter, director, cameraman and editor. Later he developed the television series The Rebel, where he also directed, and the pilots to Peyton Place, Cain 's One Hundred and Philip Marlowe.
Kershner led in 1980 directed The Empire Strikes Back. He was also director of the unofficial James Bond film Never Say Never Again (1983 ) with Sean Connery in the lead role and was responsible for Robocop 2. In the film The Last Temptation of Christ, he has assumed a supporting role for the first time.
For his work on The Empire Strikes Back was Kershner 1981 awarded the Saturn Award for Best Director.