Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Special Effects Wizard Stan Winston Dead At 62

Posted by kdawson on from the terminator-scissorhands dept.

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."

25 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. He's Not Dead ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... that's just a special effect.

    Right? :(

    1. Re:He's Not Dead ... by Dystopian+Rebel · · Score: 3, Funny

      you know he's dead if he doesn't emerge out of a vat of acid/flaming wreckage/terrific, seemingly unsurvivable explosion to attack his nemesis one last time.

      --
      Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
  2. Very Sad by NormAtHome · · Score: 5, Informative

    The man was truly gifted at his profession, one movie not mentioned and among my all time favorites is "Aliens" the James Cameron follow up to Alien.

    1. Re:Very Sad by NormAtHome · · Score: 3, Informative

      That would be funny. Ray Harryhausen was a pioneer in the field (and as far as I know still alive at 87) but in those days his art wasn't recognized for what it was, no Academy award nominations (according to IMDB) for special effects. Stan Winston had nine nominations (again Academy Awards) and three wins as well as multiple Saturn and other nominations and awards.

  3. Just if any one else wonders..... by zeromorph · · Score: 4, Informative
    Multiple myeloma:

    is a type of cancer of plasma cells which are immune system cells in bone marrow that produce antibodies. Myeloma is regarded as incurable, but remissions may be induced with steroids, chemotherapy, thalidomide and stem cell transplants. Myeloma is part of the broad group of diseases called hematological malignancies.
    --
    "Hannibal's plans never work right. They just work." Amy/A-Team
    1. Re:Just if any one else wonders..... by maxume · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

      --
      Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
  4. Multiple Myeloma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Chances are he probably died from an infection(not actually the cancer). Multiple myeloma in late stages heavily suppress all bone marrow tissue(that means your red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.) People with Multiple myeloma over-produc non-functional antibody side chains from malignant plasma cells. This impairs immune response and causes renal failure, making them extra susceptible to infections(more so than other cancers).

    1. Re:Multiple Myeloma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My Mom was diagnosed with it in November and was gone by March and it went down exactly as you described. While she was certainly on the short end of the scale, 7 years is a long fight with this killer. (My Mom was 62 as well)

      One off topic thing that I learned. If you have a loved one with something like this ask the hard questions of your Doctor. They usually wont tell you how much time they think is left unless you drill down. Don't settle for a general awnser. I was told 6 months at one point and she was gone the next week. I know they can't give you an exact date, but they do know more then they are telling you.

  5. Hear hear by hansamurai · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Here's to the guy who scared the crap out of me while simultaneously inspiring me in so many ways as a child.

    --
    Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
  6. sad news indeed by theheadlessrabbit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    -I only code in BASIC.-
    1. Re:sad news indeed by iXiXi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:sad news indeed by pclminion · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:sad news indeed by TrekkieGod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --

      Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.

  7. Such Great Work by tucara · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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*

  8. Remembered like Mel Blanc? by mykepredko · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember a cel coming out after Mel Blanc's death of a single microphone with many of the characters he voiced standing around mourning him.

    Maybe something similar could be done for Winston.

    From everything I've read about him, he was somebody that was generous, helpful and incredibly creative.

    He will be missed,

    myke

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  9. You know you've lived a good life when.... by DanOrc451 · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    Thanks for the magic.
    --
    Ceci n'est pas une signature.
    1. Re:You know you've lived a good life when.... by Wisconsingod · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

  10. Paying tribute to a Legend by Mighty-Hypnotoad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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

  11. The films he worked on by dunezone · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I told my friends about Stan yesterday. And my friends are big sci-fi people. They had no clue who this man was, nor did they care. But the thing was, once I told them what movies he worked on, what creatures he created, they were amazed.

    Before CGI, this was the guy to go to for special effects and creature creation. In my opinion, he had the privilege to live the high point of traditional movie special effects, and had the honor of working on the film that ushered in CGI(Jurassic Park). And the thing about Jurassic Park, this movie combined both the classic approach and a modern approach seamlessly.

    Watching the interview on the JP DVD you can tell how excited he was to work on that project. The time he took with ILM to make sure a shot that had the actual built dinosaur and the CGI created worked seamlessly, shot to shot. To this day I load up the T-Rex attack scene and ask people to pull out the CGI shot and the non-CGI shot. Barely anyone can tell difference. Yet, I load up "i-Robot" and people just laugh at the compositing.

    Last week I watched "Aliens", first time I have ever seen the film. I was blown away. The detailed model work was amazing. This was all pre-cgi also. The thing with Stan Winston, he knew CGI was the new hollywood tool, but just like Phil Tippett, he also knew his skills were not gone. There was still room for traditional effects.

    He will be missed, and as more and more films use less and less traditional special effects. You can always look back and watch films like Aliens, Predator, Terminator, and tell your kids this is how they did it before we had computers. And one of the masters of the pre-computer era was Stan Winston.

  12. "Aliens" is the first movie mentioned by jamrock · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Aliens", for which Stan won his first Oscar, is the first movie mentioned in the first sentence of the Wired article linked to in the summary. All the other news sources I've read, BBC News, Los Angeles Times, NY Times et al, mention "Aliens" prominently. And you've got good taste: "Aliens" is also among my all time favorite films. I'm deeply saddened by his passing. I remember seeing an interview with him about 10 years ago, during which he took the interviewer on a tour of his vast workshops, and apart from the fascinating and voluminous collection stored there, the thing that struck me most about Stan was his incredibly playful sense of humor. I laughed out loud at his clowning around, and couldn't help thinking that he would have been a great deal of fun to work with. He will be sorely missed.

    1. Re:"Aliens" is the first movie mentioned by NormAtHome · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Sorry, I meant in the "Slashdot" recap where they only mention "The Terminator, Jurassic Park, Edward Scissorhands, and Iron Man".

      Aliens was one of those rare movies that just combined so many great talents, Director, Production People, Actors, Special Effects, Writers etc. and the result was such an incredible thrill ride. At the time I remember thinking that it was one of the greatest movies I'd ever seen and I must have seen it six or eight times in the theater.

    2. Re:"Aliens" is the first movie mentioned by jamrock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I couldn't agree with you more about "Aliens". I was (and remain) thrilled by this film, and I think that it's by far James Cameron's finest effort (my wife and her friends think I'm some sort of heretic because I despised "Titanic"). I have at this moment open beside my computer "Aliens: The Official Movie Magazine", which I hastened to buy when it went on sale in 1986. It's still in mint condition 22 years later, and is one of my treasured collector's items. It gives behind-the-scenes details of the film production, especially fascinating photos of setups for many of the scenes. What is not widely known is that Cameron is a talented illustrator, and in the words of Stan Winston, was entirely responsible for the "concept, idea, and design of the Alien Queen", as well as much of the production design. The magazine has early design sketches of the Queen by James Cameron, as well as extensive interviews with the principal cast and crew, including Stan Winston explaining how a lot of the shots were pulled off, such as the famous one of the Queen ripping Bishop in half. Kudos to Cameron: he recognized that people already knew from the first film what the creature looked like, and decided to turn it into a combat film. And yet he still managed to pull off a major shock by introducing the Queen.

      True story. The forgettable Robert Redford/Debra Winger film "Legal Eagles" was released the same weekend as "Aliens", and my Mom, a huge Redford fan, wanted to see it, so my sister and I dropped her off at the cineplex where both were showing (I had already seen "Aliens" three times over the weekend). When we picked her up from the theater three hours later, the first thing we noticed was the disgusted expression on her face. Turns out that she'd gone into the wrong auditorium and wound up watching "Aliens". She's by no stretch of the imagination a fan of science fiction or horror films, but she actually enjoyed it tremendously; she was just disappointed that Robert Redford wasn't in it. She told us that she thought he would have been wonderful as Bishop. She saw "Legal Eagles" the following night, and said that she was right the first time: Redford should have been in "Aliens", in her opinion the far superior film.

  13. An important man by HungWeiLo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --
    There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
  14. He's in heaven with Ray Harryhausen now by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny
    You're finally free from James Cameron's ego, beautiful traveler.

    Wait, Ray Harryhausen is still ALIVE?!?!

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  15. And the saddest part was that it was unecessary. by bradbury · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The saddest part of the deaths of recent people from Tim Russet to Cyd Charisse is that they were entirely unnecessary. We have the cryonics preservation technology to ensure that although they may be dead from a technical standpoint -- viewing them as permanently dead is open to question. We need a restructuring of how we think about "death" and it probably requires re-educating every physician in the country.

    You are not "dead" until all the information in your body has been converted to an unrecoverable state.