Work included 'Jurassic Park,' 'Terminator'
Stan Winston, one of the great names in special effects, has died at age 62.
The Oscar-winning visual effects artist died at his home Sunday evening surrounded by family after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio.
Winston won visual effects Oscars for 1986's "Aliens, "1992's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and 1993's "Jurassic Park,” for which he created animatronic dinosaurs that complimented the film’s digitally-animated creatures.
For decades, Winston’s robotic/animatronic creatures were the best in the industry and his prosthetic makeup was among the best available. “Iron Man” visual effects supervisor John Nelson “Stan was the man when it came to making those kind of prosthetic effects, he was the guy. If you look at the litany of other good people in the business, they tend to be people who worked for Stan.”
Stan Winston Studios did the practical Iron Man suit for this year’s Marvel/Paramount blockbuster but Winston himself was not actively involved with the shoot.
Steven Spielberg, who worked with Winston on several films, said in a statement “Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor and for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, ‘Nothing is impossible.’”
“It was a perfect compliment to the stuff that we were doing,” said Dennis Muren, who supervised the digital effects on “Jurassic Park.”
“His creatures would work with the actors and when you put the two together the audience was confused, and sometimes we were too, about who had done what.”
But Stan had always said it shouldn’t be all one or all the other, it should be a combination of the two.”
Eric Roth, executive director of the Visual Effects Society said “It’s a big loss. Our industry has lost one of its giants, someone who has had a tremendous impact on helping tell stories with the use of effects.”
Producer Gale Anne Hurd, who worked with Winston on the “Terminator” franchise and on “The Relic,” exprssed shock at the news, as Winston had refused to discuss his illness outside his intimate circle.
Hurt recalled that she and helmer James Cameron first approached makeup artist Dick Smith to do the prosthetic effects on “The Terminator.” Smith declined but recommended Winston, saying “One day you’ll thank me.”
Hurd said of Winston. “He never looked at anything as a problem, it was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics. Having him on set, regardless of whether you were going into your 19th hour or your first, he always gave 100 % and inspired everyone around him.”
The conference room at Winston’s Van Nuys studio was long one of the most effective sales tools any effects company could hope for, with life-sized creatures including the queen alien from “Aliens,” the lunging out of the walls toward the conference table on all sides.
Winston is survived by his wife, Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.
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