Man Behind Empire Passes Away Irvin Kershner , who directed The Empire Strikes Back , the 1980 landmark sequel to George Lucas’ original Star Wars film, died Saturday at his Los Angeles home after a 3 1/2-year battle with lung cancer. He was 87. During his four-decade career, Kershner used his eye for photography and his ear for music to helm George C. Scott in The Flim-Flam Man (1967), Barbra Streisand in Up the Sandbox (1972), Faye Dunaway in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), Richard Harris in The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976) and Sean Connery in the film that returned the actor to the James Bond role for a curtain call, Never Say Never Again (1983). “He had the most incredible spirit, an exuberance for life,” Streisand said. “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.” Kershner’s first feature was the Roger Corman-financed Stakeout on Dope Stree