Yesterday Hollywood lost one of its Icons when Stan Winston passed away. Stan was an innovator in special effects make-up, animatronics and digital FX. He has created such master pieces for films like Terminator, Jurassic Park and Aliens (to mention a couple of hundreds). I have worked on films that he has been on but never had the pleasure of meeting him in person. It’s genius like him that inspires future generations to make their dreams happen. Here’s some excerpts from an LA Times article:

Stan Winston, the renowned makeup, creature- and visual-effects wizard whose memorable work on “Aliens,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Jurassic Park” earned him four Academy Awards, has died. He was 62.

Winston died of complications from multiple myeloma Sunday at his home in Malibu, said his son, actor Matt Winston.

Winston, as the New Yorker magazine described several years ago, was known for “almost single-handedly elevating the craft of creature making from the somewhat comic man-in-a-rubber-suit monsters of the 1950s and ’60s to animatronics — electronically animated, part-robot, part-puppet creatures that have terrified millions of moviegoers.”

Indeed, among the creations to come out of the Stan Winston Studio: the menacing, 14-foot-tall Alien Queen in “Aliens,” the extraterrestrial jungle creature in “Predator,” the futuristic cyborg assassins in the “Terminator” movies, and the life-size dinosaurs in the ” Jurassic Park” movies, which included a frightening life-size Tyrannosaurus rex.

Winston and his team also designed and created the makeup and the scissors and blade appendages for “Edward Scissorhands.”

Among his other film credits are “Interview With the Vampire,” “Lost World,” “Batman Returns” and “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.”

He shared Oscars for best effects, visual effects for “Aliens” (1986) and “Jurassic Park” (1993) and shared Oscars for best effects, visual effects and for best makeup for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991).

More about Stan

Check out this cool youtube tribute to Stan

Tags: Academy Awards, Add new tag, Aliens, animatronics, Batman Returns, digital FX, Edward Scissorhands, films, Hollywood, Icons, innovator, Interview With the Vampire, Jurassic Park, LA Times, Lost World, Oscars, special effects make-up, Stan Winston, Terminator, visual

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