Special Effects Wizard Stan Winston Dead At 62

Dusty101 writes "Special effects maestro Stan Winston has died at the age of 62. Winston was responsible for many of the physical special effects in films such as The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Edward Scissorhands, and Iron Man. Winston died on Sunday, June 15, 2008, after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma."

Comments

sad news indeed

[theheadlessrabbit]

i am very disapointed by the lack of tact in a lot of these posts. I know this is slashdot, but a man died after fighting with a killer for 7 long years. if you are going to make a crude comment here, at least make it +5 funny, not the -1 stupid i have been seeing so far.

Stan, you will be missed.

Your skill and imagination were an inspiration to me through the years.

Re:sad news indeed

[iXiXi]

I agree, am artist like this is rare and his creativity and efforts will be missed. It has always impressed me that some special effects artists will spend days creating something that might only be seen for a flash on the screen. While watching a horror movie the other night, a head was chopped off and it only had a few frames of screen time. The efforts these artists put into their work is highly unappreciated.

Re:sad news indeed

[pclminion]

Oh yeah -- in addition, please don't trot out that tired old "We make jokes to deal with the pain of loss" garbage. Last year when a close friend of mine died, we joked at his wake, with his mother no less, about the choice of beer at the event -- Dead Guy Ale. THAT is joking to cope with loss. Most people here didn't know this guy. Your jokes aren't a coping mechanism, they're just the symptom of being an ass. Of course, if your jokes are funny and not disrepectful, bring 'em on.

Re:sad news indeed

[TrekkieGod]

Oh yeah -- in addition, please don't trot out that tired old "We make jokes to deal with the pain of loss" garbage...Most people here didn't know this guy. Your jokes aren't a coping mechanism, they're just the symptom of being an ass.

Knowing the man is irrelevant. It's not a competition to find out just who is the saddest about the loss and has therefore earned the right to make jokes. If you don't know him, you're going to have only one of three reactions:

1. You're not going to give a shit one way or another. There are quite a few people dying every moment and there's nothing special about that.
2. You're going to "know" him by his works. At which point, the most you might feel is disappointment that you're not going to see anything new by the guy.
3. You're going to "know" him by his works and you're going to relate to everybody else who has seen his work by making jokes that relate to (surprise) the stuff he has done. Which is what most people have in common.

It's not about being disrespectful, it's about being human. Being disrespectful would be to say things like, "I'm glad he's dead, he sucked anyway." Black humor is rarely disrespectful, and it's almost always better than hundreds of repetitive and insincere posts from people who never met the guy, his family, nor had any experience with someone who fought a "killer" disease for 7 years (I'm not implying you or the parent are insincere, but if I were to post something like that I most certainly would be. I have been lucky enough to have no idea what the man went through and I shall not pretend to know otherwise). People really need to stop being offended so easily. Furthermore, the more non-religious of us are unable say things like "Stan, you will be missed" because we don't think he can actually get the message.

As far what I have to say about the subject, I never knew Stan Winston, but I have always stated how impressed I was with special effects in his movies. Recent overuse of CGI has made it so that effects in Terminator 2 looked much more "real" than effects in contemporary movies, it was truly ahead of its time. He seemed to have a very good grasp of when to use CGI and when to actually build something physical, and how to blend the two effects well. Therefore, I'm in the category of people who will certainly miss his work. I can only hope others have indeed been inspired by the quality of his work and will carry on.

Such Great Work

[tucara]

I had just watched Aliens over the weekend after not having seen it for awhile (and recently suffering though the AVP:R). It was amazing at how much better the movie was since it didn't dump crappy CGI monsters into it. The Winston team worked hard to make realistic looking Aliens, not to mention all the models and the lifesize stuff like the load-lifter and the queen....*sigh*

You know you've lived a good life when....

[DanOrc451]

Your death can be reasonably symbolized by a red light flickering out in a velociraptor's eye.

Thanks for the magic.

Re:You know you've lived a good life when....

[Wisconsingod]

You know you've lived a good life when they announce it on Slashdot....

Paying tribute to a Legend

[Mighty-Hypnotoad]

I grew up completely immmersed in film and the worlds that Stan created. His contributions were always the most spectacular and most awe inspiring special effects work committed to celluloid bar none. Probably the greatest innovator in the field since Ray Harryhausen, he will be sorely missed.

R.I.P Stan

Re:Just if any one else wonders.....

[maxume]

Moderation isn't a contest. It exists to make the comments more filterable.

An important man

[HungWeiLo]

I'm sure his imagination and labor has single-handedly contributed at least several percentage points to the GDP of the United States from Hollywood exports.