Posted: Monday 16 June, 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^th in Malibu after battling multiple myeloma. He was 62.

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.