Up The Sandbox Director Dies. Barbra comments.

Irvin Kershner, filmmaker, photographer, and mentor to many younger Hollywood filmmakers, died at his home in Los Angeles November 27 after a three and a half year battle with lung cancer.  He was 87. Best known for directing “The Empire Strikes Back,” the 1980 landmark sequel to George Lucas’s original Star Wars film, he had a career in film and television that spanned forty years.


Barbra Streisand, a friend of nearly forty years, remarked, “He had the most incredible spirit, an exuberance for life.  Always working, always thinking, always writing, amazingly gifted and forever curious.  We met doing ‘Up The Sandbox’ in 1972 and remained friends ever since.  I loved him.”