Special effects guy Stan Winston is dead
Multiple myeloma got him.
Cancer sucks.
Think about it… How Many special effects guys working on movies would you recognise in the street? All my life, if there’s been a special effect, or a movie costume that’s blown me away, it’s been from Stan Winston. And by watching old “movie Magic” documentaries growing up, I’ve come to know him as a very personable, very likeable gentleman (another one of my heroes from those stunts/ effects shows that always stuck in my mind was genius-on-four-wheels Remy Julianne).
From watching The Terminator at FAR too young an age, hiding behind the sofa when the metal skeletons appeared, to the dinosaurs making me drop my popcorn in Jurassic Park, it’s ALWAYS been Stan Winston.
I’m sorry if this makes me an asshole, but my immediate thoughts went out to his fans, and those that were inspired by him, followed a little later by “oh yeah… and his family too”.
So I’d like to re-address that now, and send my heartfelt condolences to those closest to him, his family and friends. They’ve lost something that can’t be replaced, whereas we, the movie-going public, will always have his pioneering body of work to amaze and terrify us, and those who studied the man and his methods. They will never better him, but if they follow his footsteps, we will always have something magical on the screen.
:eek:
:mad:
Tideland
Constantine
Terminator
AI
Pearl Harbor
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Interview with the Vampire
Batman Returns
Edward Scissorhands
Friday the Thirteenth
The Thing
The Island
The Wiz
Roots
The Autobigraphy of Mis Jane Pittman
Iron Man
Darkness Falls
Jurassic Park
The Relic
Predator
Aliens
Starman
Pumpkinhead
So we can forgive him:
The Star Wars Holiday Special 
One of a kind.
I don’t know what it is lately … we’re losing far too many legends of entertainment recently. Seems the good and respectable celebrities just keep dying younger, and the contemptible assholes of entertainment just won’t go the fuck away. I bet Uwe Boll lives to a ripe old age after wantonly flushing every promising video game film translation down the shitter.
Can’t say enough about Winston’s passion for bringing imagination to life like few others could. He was brilliant, charismatic, and prolific … and even in the modern age of CGI, Winston and his studio’s analog creations still surpassed the level of quality of computer effects. Even as recently as Iron Man, he was responsible for adding the finite level of physicality to Tony Stark’s articulated armor, something that simply can’t be recreated on a computer in the same manner.
Rest in peace, Mr. Winston. Hollywood won’t be the same.
Damn. I’ve been following him for years. He did the make-up for the Judge Dee TV movie back in 1974 or so. Along the way he’s done damned near everything – his team built the life-size T. Rex for Jurassic Park, as wel as the Terminator practical models, and the underappreciated Pumpkinhead (which, IIRC, he directed as well). A varied and diverse career.
This totally sucks.
One of the greatest effects guys ever, and clearly a very nice guy. I know people who have met him, and they’re going to be devastated.
Here’s a tribute to Stan from one of his long time collaborators and friends, James Cameron.
I never knew who he was until I saw the article posted on AICN earlier. Heh, it’s funny, sometimes, how you can know someone so well without knowing their name until they are gone. And then you cry for half an hour afterward, because you’ve lost something irreplaceable.
I have been a huge fan of both since the very beginning. We have truly lost something and someone special.
One of only two people to win Oscars in both the Make-up and Visual Effects categories.
Wins
MU: T2
VFX: Aliens, Jurassic Park, T2
Nominated
MU: Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Heartbeeps
VFX: AI, The Lost World, Predator
A true master at his craft. RIP.
I won’t hold his terrible films against Mr. Winston; regardless of how bad the project was he always gave it his all. The brain shrivelingly awful Island of Dr. Moreau remake has some wonderful make up effects.
How has this fallenoff the frontpage? Only 15 comments on the death of a pure legend?
The afterlife will surely appear a lot more realistic now that Stan Winston has arrived.
I am given to understand that multiple myeloma has been associated with prolonged exposure to toxic chemicals. I’d hate to think that the man’s profession had anything to do with his relatively early demise. But forty years spent huffing plastic fumes can’t be all that good for you in the long run. I suspect he might have thought it was worth it, though.
It’d be really neat if his admiring colleagues [and competitors] were to help send him off in style (picture a movie FX masters’ equivalent of a Viking funeral), especially if they were able to secure the cooperation of the family and the funeral home or crematorium.
Then again, some things are just best left to the imagination.
On the topic of colleagues, this page on Aint It Cool News is worth a read … filled with personal thoughts on Stan’s achievements from several of the people he’s worked with over the years, including Jim Cameron, Jon Favreau, Frank Darabont, Joe Dante, Rick Baker, McG (the guy in the director’s seat for the next Terminator film), Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis (the duo who’ve almost singlehandedly been responsible for bringing the Alien to the screen in all its incarnations since 1986), and a smattering of other notables from major studios throughout the physical effects industry. His influence on everything and everyone he was involved with is hard to sum up.
And yeah, I’m also especially disappointed that there’s been zero mention of his passing in the media and that this thread has sunk to the bottom with barely a dozen responses.