Stan Winston Dead!!!

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Re: Stan Winston Dead?!?

jedibear said:
A true giant of inspiration...RIP, Mr. Winston.....

Here are some comments James Cameron had over at AICN...




Stan was a great man. I'm proud to have been his friend, and his collaborator on what for both of us, was some of our best work. We met in pre-production on Terminator in 1983, and quickly sized each other up as the kind of crazy son of a ^^^^^ that you wanted for a friend. We've stayed friends for over a quarter of a century, and would have been for much longer if he had not been cut down.

We've lost a great artist, a man who made a contribution to the cinema of the fantastic that will resound for a long long time. I don't need to list the indelible characters he and his team of artists brought to the screen. Readers of your site know them.

We all know Stan's work, the genius of his designs. But not even the fans necessarily know how great he was as a man. I mean a real man --- a man who knows that even though your artistic passion can rule your life, you still make time for your family and your friends. He was a good father, and he raised two great kids. His wife of 37 years, Karen, was with him in the beginning, helping him make plaster molds in their garage for low budget gigs on TV movies, and she was with him at the end.

He was a man of incredible humor. When I think of him I see him smiling, usually a goofy grin as he twists his glasses askew on his nose doing a Jerry Lewis impression. Never afraid to play the clown, because he knew his colleagues respected him. He lived life full throttle, in work and play. Like me he loved fast cars, and whenever one of us would get a new toy, the other had to drive it (a practice which was strained for few years after I skidded his brand new Porsche turbo, just off the boat from Stuttgart, into his garage and stopped a half inch from the back wall). We even went to formula racing school together. For the last ten years or so we rode motorcycles on Sundays with Arnold Schwarzenegger and some other friends, not every week but as many Sundays as we could. There was a comradeship that comes from starting out together, and never betraying the respect and trust of that friendship over the years, but always being there for each other, that the three of us have shared.

Stan and I founded Digital Domain together, and our friendship was never strained by being business partners. He always demonstrated incredible wisdom in business, because he knew people, and especially creative people. He inspired artists to pull together and work as a team, which is like herding cats, but it was perhaps his greatest talent. To lead by inspiration. His own team at Stan Winston Studios is the most stable in the business. His core guys have been with him literally since Terminator, 25 years. That's because they respected him so much, and because he made the work fun, even though it was hard. They would stay up all night busting their ass for him. They knew they would always be doing something cutting edge and challenging, and that he respected them enough to let them run with it. Though he could draw and sculpt as well as any of them, he never let his own talent eclipse theirs, because he knew that team building was the most important aspect of leadership. And that's what allowed them to create success after success for over two decades, and win 4 Oscars, among over 30 awards. A walk through Stan's studio gallery is a trip through the last two decades of fantasy cinema. Predators, Terminators, raptors, T-rexes, Edward Scissorhands himself and a hundred more. It hits you how great an impact he's had.

I spoke with Stan by phone Saturday morning, and apparently it was one of the last conversations he had. Incredibly, in retrospect, he was full of life, you'd never have known he was at death's door. We talked for a long time about all the fun times, and all the dragons we'd slain together. He said that once you've shown something is possible, everybody can do it. What was important was being first. Breaking new ground.

Well that's just what he did his whole career, and today's creature and character effects business uses the techniques he developed every single day. He inspired a generation of fantasy effects geeks, and his legacy will be found in their dreams up on the screens of the future, not just in the films he worked on directly.

I'm going to miss him, like I'd miss a brother. It's hard, almost unfathomable, to talk about him in the past tense. He was just one of those larger than life people that was so alive that you can't imagine them gone. But he is gone. I ask the fans to remember not just the work but the man.

Thanks for listening.

Jim out

I hope Spielberg and Favereau have some comments out there soon. "Iron Man" wouldn't have the intensity it does without Mr. Winston's touch and we wouldn't believe a T-Rex could walk the earth without his contribution.

An immense talent...
Click to expand...

Great article, and yet another reason for me to love James Cameron. We share the same first name. Both fellow Canadians, and I love his body of work.

Like Andy Bergholtz, Stan Winston is also a guy I looked up to and who is one of my many inspirations in life. I just got accepeted into a three year course (Digital Multimedia Technology) that encompasses CGI and film editing. I wish to do the things he did in film. My cousin worked with New Line Cinema a few years back in Los Angeles in an intern position, and now works in Toronto doing Saturday morning cartoons. He's more in the distribution end, but regardless, he's doing something he loves, and he has been credited in a lot of shows. Lucky guy! I hope to see my name in movie and/or television series credits in a few years when I inevitably graduate.

Stan was one of my favorite guys. I have known of him for many years, so when I got my 1:1 Arnold bust, I was pretty darn excited! It is arguably one of my favorite pieces I own, along with some big green goliath of a guy in purple jeans... since when was purple in? ;)

Anyway, RIP Stan Winston. This has been a sad day for people I respect. One of my favorite hockey players I followed of late, Luc Bourdon passed away at the tender age of 21 last month, and now Stan. :(
 
I just heard.
This is a sad day.
While Hollywood is going toward computer images Stan made some of the most memorable creatures in modern film.
He'll be missed.
:(
 
It is really sad. If you think about the movies he has done but then think about all the films he won't be able to put his touch on. Could you imagine the kind of work he could have done on a God Of War movie?
My buddies and I are going to have a Stan Winston Marathon tomorrow.
Celebrate his life and mourn his death.
 
This totally sucks. He is the reason why I am collecting prop replica's.

Off Topic I think the title of this thread should be changed.
 
:monkey2:monkey2:monkey2:monkey2:monkey2

This is absolutely awful news
I really liked what Stan Winston had achieved in movies this is a sad day for the Film Industry
You will be missed Stan
See you in another life brother :monkey2
 
Stan Winston is gone

I didn't see a thread on this in this section, but there wouldn't be a Predator, an Alien Queen, Terminator or even a Robocop without the great Stan Winston. Sadly, the man has past away yesterday.

I only met the man once in Columbus, Ohio during the Arnold Classic of all things in 1997. My friends and I were incredibly stoked to meat Arnold, so we waited at his hotel lobby to catch a glimps. When he and Maria finally came out of his room on his way to the ballroom for a party they were both incredibly dismissive. You know, I really didn't fault him for that. I am sure being hounded by fans gets really tiring. So as we were leaving going down an escalator, and I saw this tiny man with a gray beard coming up the other side. It was Stan Winston. I couldn't believe it was actually him. As he got closer, I worked up the courage to say "Mister Winston?!?" He reached out and shook my hand as one of my friends blurted out something about taking a picture. The whole time he wouldn't let go of my hand, even as the escalator drew us farther and farther apart. He waited at the top while we ran up the escalator. He posed for a couple photos and we talked for about 10 minutes. He was just that nice.

What a loss.

You can read more about him here
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2008/06/stan-winston-de.html
 
Re: Stan Winston is gone

jesus , this is so sad.
Just woke up to find out this had happened.
Such a shame , the man was a genius.
Its great to here this comment though " he passed away peacefully with his family ".
I'm sure hes in a better place now.
R.I.P Stan.
 

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