The Winston Effect

Creature artist Stan Winston passed away June 15th after an long battle with multiple myeloma. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Winston was a make-up designer, special effects artist, director, producer and overall master of his profession, a creature creator. In his own words "I don't do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures."

He worked in TV, Film and amusement park attractions and had a hand in some of the most groundbreaking and influential movies in history. He was, like Rick Baker, Dick Smith and George Lucas' ILM, a brand name. Films could be promoted in movie geek circles based on his involvement alone and he always raised the bar for projects he was involved with.

Like many I was aware of his work before I knew who he was. Winston worked in TV with the FX heavy series "Manimal", did costumes for the wookie family in the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special" and worked with Rick Baker on the film "The Thing" (for which Baker won an Oscar).

Winston came to fame with a one-two punch in the early eighties with the "The Terminator" in 1984 and "Aliens" in 1986. The former would become a hallmark of his career which he would revisit four times (in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", 1996's "T2 3D: Battle Across Time" for the Universal Studios Theme Parks, 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and as a supervisor on the upcoming "Terminator: Salvation"). He also forged a lasting friendship on set with star Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron. His relationship with Cameron continued into the "Aliens" shoot where Winston was asked to continue the original nightmarish alien designs by HR Giger with a bigger, badder alien queen. He delivered. With an imposing mix of scale and insect inspired creepiness, the alien queen was the perfect adversary for Sigorney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley. Their cargo bay showdown was the stuff of legend and showed how well the practical, large scale hydraulic effects by Winston could work. He was honored for his work on "Aliens" with an Oscar for Visual Effects as well as two for "T2: Judgement Day", one for Best Make-up and another for Best Visual Effects (which he shared with ILM's Dennis Muren).

His resume continued to grow with films like "Monster Squad", "The Leviathan" and the "Predator" series before joining Steven Speilberg for "Jurassic Park". There, in a film filled with the latest in computer generated imagery, Winston showed that there was still a place for the life size practical effects. These latex covered, hydraulic powered machines were like living, breathing things that the actors could work with and react to. Once again he shared the stage with Industrial Light and Magic's Dennis Muren as they received another Oscar for Visual Effects.

Winston would be nominated by the Academy of Arts and Sciences two more times for his Visual Effects work. Once for "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and again for "Artificial Intelligence: A.I." but "Jurassic Park" would be his last win. The attention getting cgi effects of the last ten years took some of the spotlight away from his profession but he still remained an integral part of many blockbuster films including "Big Fish", "Constantine" and this summer's smash hit "Iron Man". He founded Digital Domain, Stan Winston Studios and Stan Winston Digital and was one of only two SFX artists to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In a profession filled with giant stars he created bigger ones. He took pen and paper, paint and clay, latex and steel and turned them into graceful, sometimes fearsome, moving works of art. He was an inspiration for many like myself to appreciate not only the film and the actors, but the hard work done by the men and women behind the camera. He died Sunday at his home in Malibu at age 62.

"There's nothing more important to me in my life than my family, and nothing will ever take over. I believe that's why the work shows as well as it is because my work is not a sacrifice. My work is a joy. I'm not sacrificing my family for my work. I go in and I love what I do."

We love what you do to. Thanks Stan.