In the summer of 1983, independent young filmmaker James Cameron was confronted with the problem of convincingly turning an unknown Austrian bodybuilder into a killer metal skeleton peeling with rotting flesh from the future called the Terminator.
Just when it seemed that James and Arnold were doomed to an embarrassment made out of an idea that no studio in Hollywood would touch, a makeup artist who gave Chewbacca's father Itchy his face in The Star Wars Holiday Special and astoundingly refused to work on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, walked through the door.
His name was Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 — June 15, 2008).
Stan took one look at James Cameron's pencil sketches and wrapped the bodybuilder's face in liquid plaster. Out of the impression left by the massive Austrian's face, he meticulously carved a nightmarish visage of mechanical death out of clay.
In the fall of 1984, Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and thousands of film audiences watched in stunned horror as that same visage of death, now rendered in steel, walked fleshless out of a roaring inferno. The rest is history.
For a quarter of a century, Mr. Stan Winston held the honor of being the single most respected makeup artist and puppeteer in the film-making industry. When in doubt, he was the go-to guy if you needed the most horrifyingly realistic movie monsters. Aside from helping to get the career of James Cameron off the ground, he was also a veteran collaborator with cinematic luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, and even a music video or two (working with the late Michael Jackson for instance).
More than just a monster-puppeteer, Mr. Winston was also a virtuoso in the art of makeup, capable of making chameleons out of actors playing characters wildly different in appearance or recreate heartbreakingly accurate injuries of the most horrific battles in human history. He went on with James Cameron to create the visual effects company known as Digital Domain.
First and foremost, Stan Winston considered himself a storyteller, with his creations as characters and actors, rather than props. In 2001 he was honored with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. By the time he lost his battle to cancer on June 15th, 2008, he had 4 Academy Awards, 2 Emmys, and 15 other awards under his belt. His workshop has since been reformed as Legacy Effects
and largely stick to commercial work; but have been involved in several films and shows, such as The Muppets (2011), Real Steel, Dinner for Schmucks, Grey's Anatomy, Robot, and even The Avengers to name a few.
At his funeral, lifelong-friend Governor Schwarzenegger reverently thanked Mr. Winston, proclaiming that he would not have had the career that made him who he is without him. This appreciation is shared by Sigourney Weaver, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg and the scores of mourning filmmakers who attended that day.
Have fun up there, Mr. Winston. Your glory will be remembered by filmgoers for generations to come.
Notable Credits:
- It Lives by Night (1974): The less said about this film, which became Mystery Science Theater 3000 fodder, the better. Shared effects duties with Flight of the Navigator's Tony Urbano.
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974): He and Rick Baker convincingly aged Cicely Tyson up through to age 110.
- The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978): Yes, even the greats have to start somewhere, handled the makeup effects for Chewbacca's family.
- The Wiz (1978): He did the makeup and costumes for all the characters, but most notably Michael Jackson's Scarecrow and Nipsey Russell's Tin Man.
- Dead & Buried (1981)
- The Hand (1981): Handled the various hand effects with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial's Carlo Rambaldi.
- Heartbeeps (1982): The robot makeup he created for Andy Kaufman and Bernadette Peters got him his first Oscar nomination, even though the movie bombed.
- The Thing (1982): While Rob Bottin is the man credited with most of the film's horrifying effects, the first transformation seen the the film, the transformation of the "dog thing", was done by Stan Winston, as Bottin was suffering exhaustion from his work schedule at the time. In fact, that was literally Mr Winston's hand inside the transformed dog's head, giving a doubly disturbing organic quality to the puppetry of its movement. Winston declined to have a credit on the film, as he didn't want to take praise away from Bottin's work.
- The Terminator (1984): The film that almost-literally made Arnold Schwarzenegger the man he is today.
- Winston would return for all three sequels and the theme park ride Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time, making him the only person to have worked on all of the Terminator films.
- Starman (1984): Worked on the transformation of Starman into an adult with Rick Baker and Dick Smith. More specifically, he did the child-to-teen stages of the scene.
- Aliens (1986): The Alien Queen; most realistic movie dragon, ever. First Oscar win.
- Invaders from Mars (1986)
- The Vindicator (1986): A somewhat obscure modern-day take on Frankenstein, for which Stan provided an intricate cyborg suit resembling an early version of a Borg drone.
- The Monster Squad (1987): A forgotten gem; watch it.
- Predator (1987): Saved the film at the eleventh hour — after the initial design of the creature by a different company proved to be a failure, Arnold Schwarzenegger recommended him for the job.
- Pumpkinhead (1988): His directorial debut.
- Edward Scissorhands (1990): Perhaps his best-known non-horror character piece.
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991): Yes, even the T-1000 is mostly his puppets rather than pure CGI.
- Batman Returns (1992): If one man can make Danny DeVito even MORE ugly, Stan is the man. Also, the cute animatronic penguins.
- Jurassic Park (1993): If you thought the Alien Queen was scary, you have not taken a visit to the T-Rex pen yet. Though the movie famously used CGI for a lot of the dinosaur shots, many others were done using puppets and animatronics done by Winston, such as the Dilophosaurus and some shots of the T-Rex.note
- Winston would go on to work on both sequels, The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III as well.
- Interview with the Vampire (1994): The Uncanny Valley corpselike pallor of the vampires, their retractable fangs and the astoundingly realistic puppet of Tom Cruise shrinking into a bloodless corpse after Kirsten Dunst slits his throat.
- Tank Girl (1995): Mutant kangaroos!
- The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996): Mutant Human-Animal hybrids! Which are among the only things that people who watch the film will admit were the only decent parts.
- The Relic (1997)
- Mousehunt (1997): Live action Tom and Jerry antics even before the actual live-action movie.
- Small Soldiers (1998): Brought the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite to life.
- Instinct (1999): A small project, but a very fulfilling one for Stan and the studio, as it allowed them to create gorillas that rivaled the apes created by Rick Baker in realism.
- The Sixth Sense (1999): Ghosts have rarely been this eerily convincing.
- Galaxy Quest (1999): One of his few comedic projects.
- Inspector Gadget (1999): His interpretation of Gadget's gadgets are often cited as being the best part of the movie.
- End of Days (1999)
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999): Designed the makeup and body suit for Fat Bastard.
- What Lies Beneath (2000)
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001): Stan's best known tragic film after Edward Scissorhands.
- Pearl Harbor (2001): The chillingly realistic injuries created by his studio drove real-life survivors of the attack to tears at the film's premiere.
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
- Big Fish (2003): The monster maestro proves once and for all he can tell heartwarming fairy-tales as well as horror stories.
- Wrong Turn (2003)
- Zathura (2005): In one of his few kid-friendly efforts, Stan creates the suits/puppets of the creepy Zorgon lizard warriors, as well as the imposing eight-foot tall battle robot.
- The Benchwarmers (2006): Provided the effects for Number 7 and other robots.
- Eight Below (2006): On top of the animatronic dogs, this was one of the few times his studio did CGI work, animating the killer seal that attacks the dogs.
- Charlotte's Web (2006)
- Iron Man (2008): Tony Stark's invincible suits of iron.
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): He and his crew created the eponymous Crystal Skulls along with the extra-dimensional beings and the mummies of the Mayans who worshipped them.
- Terminator Salvation (2009): One of his last films got him back where he started, and Winston's team had to opportunity to craft a variety of Terminators, from the Moto-Terminators to the snake/pirahna-like hydrobots. The film is dedicated to his memory.
- Avatar (2009): Despite having close to none of his trademark, articulate and spectacularly lifelike puppets appearing in this film, the basis for the digital Na'vi are still designed and sculpted in clay the good old fashioned way by the Monster-Meister himself and his crew before being scanned into Weta-Digital's computers. Last major work of the master before passing away from leukemia.
- The Suffering: A game, not a movie, but he designed the monsters. This was one of his more creative endeavors.
- Music Video:
- Winston designed and made the masks for the character of "Mr. Roboto," from the Styx album Kilroy Was Here, and its accompanying concert video, Caught in the Act Live (1982).
- Ghosts (1997): Designed makeups for Michael Jackson — including a white guy Fat Suit — and a troupe of dancers for the long form video / Short Film, and actually directed the production. Unfortunately, due to the icky Does This Remind You of Anything? premise (it's a metaphor for Jackson's brushes with the law, over child molestation allegations), it's fallen into Keep Circulating the Tapes territory in its complete form.
- Pinball: Winston worked on Congo, sculpting the snarling Killer Gorilla on the inner playfield that watches the player.
Tropes associated with Stan Winston:
- A Father to His Men: Well, to his workshop, at any rate.
- Cool Old Guy: Shows up in multiple photos with Arnold Schwarzenegger, in tight black T-shirts, bulging with muscles as big as the Governator's, while chomping on an equally badass cigar to match.
- Doting Parent: Not only was he like a loving grandfather to his crew, but his own Real Life family is a very large and warm one.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: The very last project he worked on before he died, went on to become the highest grossing movie in the world.
- In Memoriam: Shown in Terminator Salvation.
- Old Shame: The Star Wars Holiday Special, refusing a gig on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Invaders from Mars (1986) and A Gnome Called Gnorm (his second directorial effort).
