I first encountered the amazing work of Stan Winston in 1874 when he turned 40-year old Cicely Tyson into a 110-year old pioneer in the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. He earned his first Emmy with that make-up and continued to set the standard for modern makeup and creature design.
Winston died yesterday at age 62, having lost his seven-year battle with multiple myeloma.
My next encounter was probably back in 1981 when I was working at Starlog Press. He had designed the robot makeup for Heartbeeps and since then, his name became synonymous for quality work. He was an innovator who continued to strive for creativity and realism, putting him atop of a field. With Rick Baker, Stan Winston was one of the few to become a brand name, mentioned in the same breath as the cast, director and screenwriter for new films. That his passing was picked up by the mainstream media speaks volumes of the esteem with which he was held.
His pinnacle may have been Jurassic Park, where he helped convince Steven Spielberg that the time had come for a digital approach to the creatures. Goodbye Bruce the shark, hello velociraptor. Winston made sure the actors’ humanity was not overwhelmed by the makeup as witnessed by the sympathetic Johnny Depp in Edward Scisssorhands.
His creations ran the gamut of genre filmmaking for the last two decades and include work in Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Batman Returns, Predator, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and A.I.
Winston’s final work on screen was this year’s first and best blockbuster, Iron Man.
Knowing the fight was a difficult one, he turned his makeup house into the Winston Effects Group and his influence will be felt next year in Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins, G.I. Joe, Shutter Island and James Cameron’s Avatar.
He parlayed his success with makeup to go into other businesses, starting with directing when he helmed Pumpkinhead in 1988. He also was a film producer with Wrong Turn and The Deaths of Ian Stone to his credit.
Titan Books’ The Winston Effect: The Art & History of Stan Winston Studio is a must reads for any filmmaker.
He was also a teacher and a new generation of effects artists were heavily influenced by the gentle man. When he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001, the rest of the world finally caught on to what a rare talent worked in their midst.
Winston worked in Hollywood at a time of transformation, as the genre budgets soared, freeing him to experiment. He was on the cutting edge as digital effects were married to physical ones and rather than be overwhelmed by the changes, he embraced them, much to each film’s benefit. Stan Winston was a wonderful artist, a craftsman who made every film he touched all the better.
Famous Monsters salutes the passing a true giant in the field.
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