Monday, June 16, 2008

Stan Winston 1946-2008

I just learned that Stan Winston died last night. You may not know the name unless you are a movie geek or nerd in general like me, but I guarantee you know his work. Stan Winston's studio is responsible for designing some of the most iconic character designs in recent memory. The Terminator - his design. The Aliens in Aliens - his designs. Predator - his design. The dinos in Jurrasic Park - his designs. The list goes on and on. His studio does makeup, character design, practical effects, and puppets with a new department now doing digital effects as well. He won a total of 4 Oscars for Terminator 2, Aliens, and Jurrasic Park. He is one of only 2 visual effects men to have a star on the Walk of Fame. The last thing he worked on that was completed was the Iron Man suit. His imagination created some of the characters of my favorite movies. A true behind the scenes legend has passed on. Below is a list of some of the most notable films he worked on courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Thing (1982)
Friday the 13th Part III (1983)
The Terminator (1984)
Aliens (1986)
The Monster Squad (1987)
Predator (1987)
Leviathan (1988)
Pumpkinhead (1989)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Predator 2 (1990)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Batman Returns (1992)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Interview with the Vampire (1994)
Congo (1995)
The Island of Doctor Moreau (1996)
T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996)
Ghosts (1997)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Small Soldiers (1998)
Lake Placid (1999)
End of Days (1999)
Pearl Harbor (2001)
A.I. (2001)
Jurassic Park III (2001)
When Darkness Falls (2002)
Big Fish (2003)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Wrong Turn (2003)
Constantine (2005)
Iron Man (2008)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Geiger of Chicago tattoo fame actually came up with the Alien as far as a character on paper.

I read the name and immediately remembered some of Winston's finest work. Special effect movie dorks like myself will miss this guy tremendously. Hopefully there are a couple of capable students waiting in the wings.

MrManuel said...

Evil E - Yeah, I do know about Geiger and his inspiration for the original Alien creature. He does(did?) great stuff. I guess I should have been more specific on his work on Aliens. I thougth someone might bring that up.

Mom said...

How sad! You're not a geek - just a wealth of knowledge! What a genius (Stan Winston, that is) OK - you too!

Churlita said...

Weird. I've seen almost all those movies and didn't know who he was.

Anonymous said...

That is why I mentioned the "on paper" thing. You were not wrong by any means, Winston did convert the creature to the big screen.

Mrs. Hairy Woman said...

he was trully talented.. I have heard of him and that would mean i'm a geek too.. but he did do some amazing stuff.. R I P.Stan..