Stan Winston, Movie Make-Up Innovator, Dies at 62 : News From Make-Up Artist Magazine

My Account | Cart Contents | Checkout

Stan Winston, Movie Make-Up Innovator, Dies at 62

Posted: Monday June 16, 2008

Stan Winston, the four-time Oscar winner who pioneered some of Hollywood’s most memorable creature, character and special make-up effects, died June 16^thin Malibu after battling multiple myeloma. He was 62.

Born April 7, 1946 in Virginia, Winston studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia; throughout his career, he enjoyed sculpting fine art pieces. He moved to Hollywood in 1968 to be an actor, but the following year he changed course and became an apprentice in the Walt Disney Studios Makeup Department, supervised by Robert Schiffer. It wasn’t a huge professional departure for the young Winston: As he told Make-up Artist writer Joe Nazarro in a 2001 interview, “I was the kid who loved the movies and loved the monsters and liked to scare people.”

Over the course of his career, Winston became best known as a creature creator. His lengthy filmography spans decades and includes either supervisory or participatory make-up, robotics and sculpture work on Iron Man, Constantine, the Terminator films, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Jurassic Park, Aliens, Predator, Inspector Gadget, Galaxy Quest, Artificial Intelligence: A.I., Interview with a Vampire, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Star Wars (designing Wookie costumes), Friday the 13^th, Heartbeeps, The Wiz, Roots, The Thing, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittmanand many others. He won four Academy Awards, two Emmy Awards, six Saturn Awards, three BAFTA awards and more than a dozen nominations overall.

He was a founding member of the visual effects companies Digital Domain, Stan Winston Digital and Stan Winston Studios. The studio contributed characters and effects to more than 75 feature films as well as several music videos and commercial spots. Winston produced a series of films under the banner Creature Features, and produced a line of toys and action figures called Stan Winston Creatures. He was an advocate for make-up and effects artists, and one of just a few special make-up effects artists to claim his own star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. At the time of his death, he was transforming his physical make-up and effects studio into the Winston Effects Group. Managing the new company as partners and owners are veteran effects supervisors John Rosengrant, Shane Mahan, Alaan Scott and Lindsay Macgowan.

Winston is survived by his brother Ronnie, wife Karen, son Matt, daughter Debbie, daughter-in-law Amy, son-in-law Erich and four grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that charitable donations be sent to the Institute for Myeloma and Bone Cancer Reasearch, Free Arts for Abused Children and the United States fund for UNICEF. Details about services will be announced at a later date.

Subscribe To Our Make-Up Artist Magazine News Feed - RSS Help

Taking Age Make-up to New Extremes in Discovery's 'Curiosity' - Monday December 19, 2011

$Taking Age Make-up to New Extremes in Discovery\'s \'Curiosity\'$

For an episode of Discovery's Curiosity, called "Can I Live Forever?", make-up effects artist Danny Wagner and his team aged the forty-something MythBusters host Adam Savage to ages 65, 132 and 1,000.

2010 Primetime Emmy Nominations - Thursday July 08, 2010

On July 8, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the Creative Arts Emmy nominees. Click the full story to read the nominees in the make-up and hair categories.

Make-Up Artist Magazine Features Michael Jackson Retrospective - Monday July 06, 2009

Following the recent death of Michael Jackson, Make-Up Artist magazine’s next issue (#79) will feature a retrospective of the King of Pop, featuring interviews with a number of make-up artists who worked with Jackson over the past three decades, as well as some exclusive, never-before-published photos.

Web Exclusive: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Young Hellboy - Monday August 04, 2008

From a make-up perspective, the first major character to appear in Hellboy 2 is a younger version of the hero, seen in a 1955 prologue with Professor Broom (John Hurt). The Young Hellboy character was created by the Barcelona-based company DDT Efectos Especiales and played in a gender-bending twist by the company’s Montse Ribé.

IMATS New York: In a Make-up State of Mind

Back in 'Black'

Groovy Ghoulies

The Storyteller

Make-up Around the World

To Live and Work in L.A.

About Make-Up Artist Magazine

Order IMATS Tickets

Make-Up Artist Store

Where to Find Make-Up Artist Magazine