Since the passing of makeup artist and effects guru Stan Winston, his peers from local 706 Makeup artist and Hairstylists Union have issued statements to Monsters and Critics expressing their love and admiration for one of the finest craftsmen in the film industry.
Stan Winston - "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" Los Angeles Premiere - Mann Village Theatre - Westwood, CA, USA © Lee Roth / RothStock / PR Photos
Tributes for Stan Winston:
"I loved working with Stan and had a great relationship with him ever since our first show, Edward Scissorhands. He was great fun to work with and was one of the most innovative creators of the past 3 decades. I will miss his candor and the smile he always had for me. Thanks Stan for creating some of the most memorable makeups of my career, you were a genius." - Ve Neill, Three time Oscar winner, local 706 MAHS makeup artist
"Stan Winston will always be remembered as a great makeup artist and innovator. Even as he moved on to directing, animatronics, and visual effects he would say that he was first a makeup artist. Stan started his own lab at a time when makeup departments, which had included labs, were becoming a thing of the past. His small lab became an industry known throughout the the world of makeup.
All of this was due to his creativity, drive, and ability to draw together talents like himself. There was no better credit than to have been involved with Stan on a film," - Leonard Engelman, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Makeup Branch Governor, local 706 MAHS member and past president.
"I met Stan when I was 12 years-old as his studio was up the street from where I grew up, so I hunted him down, knocked on his door which he answered and welcomed me in. That was the beginning of my relationship with the most influential person my life at that time.
Stan was always there for all of us who worked at the studio. He had our loyalty, respect and love all the time. Though Stan brought so much to the film industry, his greatest achievement was that he changed people's lives for the better. I owe him everything; as if were not for Stan, I would not be the makeup artist I am today. I miss him dearly." - Howard Berger, KNB EFX GROUP, INC Oscar winner, local 706 member.
A statement given to Monsters and Critics from Susan Cabral-Ebert, current President of local 706 makeup and hairstylists union, I.A.T.S.E.
Stan Winston (1946 – 2008)
Four Oscars, six nominations; two Emmys, two nominations; six Saturn awards, ten nominations; three BAFTA awards, three nominations, and in 2001 his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Producer Gale Ann Hurd said of Stan Winston, “He never looked at anything as a problem it was always an opportunity. I never saw him defeatist, regardless of what may have happened. And he had an incredible childlike passion for films and for makeup effects and animatronics. Having him on the set, regardless of whether you were going into your 19th hour or your first, he always gave 100% and inspired everyone else around him.”
Such is the legacy of one of our most beloved make-up artists and special visual effects wizard, producer, writer and director Stan Winston. Stan was born on April 7, 1946, in Arlington, Virginia.
His childhood enjoyments of drawing, puppetry and horror films laid the groundwork for a life in the film industry. He graduated from the fine arts and drama programs of the University of Virginia in 1968, then came to California with dreams of becoming an actor – but he found his true calling as a make-up artist and creator of unforgettable characters.
He completed 6000 hours as an apprentice at the Walt Disney Studios Make-up Department, supervised by Bob Schiffer, attaining journeyman status in Local 706 in 1972. After the apprenticeship he established Stan Winston Studio which contributed to more than 75 feature films.
In the early years of his career, he worked primarily in television creating some of the most memorable Emmy winning characters of that time, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (with Rick Baker and Lynda Gurasich -1974) and the terrifying Gargoyles (with Del Armstrong, Sonny Burman and Lyndel Kail-1972). In 1977 he created the special makeup effects for the seven-part groundbreaking miniseries Roots but won the Emmy for both Pinocchio (with Ed Butterworth and Larry Abbott) and An Evening with Diana Ross.
Transitioning into feature films, Stan designed the special make-up effects on The Wiz, and received an Oscar nomination for the revolutionary gelatin appliance robots Val and Aqua in 1981’s Heartbeeps.
In 1988, Winston directed his first feature, Pumpkinhead, and produced a series of horror films for HBO as well as a number of genre films, and he created a line of high-end toys based on some of his studio’s iconic characters.
Throughout the 1980’s and into the 1990’s Stan ventured more into the special and animatronic effects. Winning the Oscar for best visual effects in 1986 for Aliens, he then created the special make-up and scissor hands effects and along with Ve Neill, for Oscar nominated Edward Scissorhands.
Winston and Jeff Dawn won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Make-up for Terminator 2: Judgement Day and established a friendship with (now Governor and motorcycle buddy) Arnold Schwarzenegger that continued through the rest of their lives. “The entertainment industry lost a genius, and I lost one of my best friends with the death Sunday night of Stan Winston. What will live forever in my heart is the way that Stan loved everyone and treated each of his friends like they were his family.”
In 1993 the world of film animatronics changed forever with Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. Winston’s Studio designed the look and created the full-sized live-action dinosaurs.
His crew worked two years on this movie, starting with concept sketches by Winston team-member Mark “Crash” McCreary well before preproduction began. The effects were “breakthrough” in more ways than one - the T-Rex was so large he had to be anchored into bedrock seven feet below the Warner Bros. sound stage.
Winston’s team used both “live” puppeteering and computer motion control to run the T-Rex. Though ILM received much of the special effects attention, Winston’s shop supplied more than 60% of the dinos seen onscreen. “It was the perfect compliment to the stuff that we were doing” said Dennis Muren, who supervised the digital effects. “His creatures would work with the actors and when you put the two together the audience was confused, and sometimes we were too, about who had done what. But Stan had always said it should be all one of all the other, it should be a combination of the two.”
“Stan was a fearless and courageous artist/inventor,” Spielberg said. “And for many projects, I rode his cutting edge from teddy bears to aliens to dinosaurs. My world would not have been the same without Stan. What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me “Nothing is impossible.”
Detecting the rumblings of a CG eruption at Stan Winston Studio, director James Cameron approached Winston with a timely proposition: Become a partner in Digital Domain. Winston realized that as a partner in a digital house, he could not only take part in the design of the digital characters, but help bring them to fruition by taking part in the performance. Always the performer himself, he wanted to be involved from start to finish.
The first film which collaborated the Winston Studio with Digital Domain was Interview with a Vampire. The Winston shop handled makeup, prosthetics and mechanical effects, including a robotic, crawling Tom Cruise for the vampire Lestat’s big (near) death scene. DD handled compositing, CGI and miniatures.
1993 brought another Oscar nomination for Best Makeup for work with Ve Neill in Batman Returns and 1994 Oscar win for Best Visual Effects for Jurassic Park. Winston was also a major force in increasing the visibility of the f/x and make-up industries. He pressed for greater recognition for make-up and creature effects artists and campaigned for the creation of a make-up Oscar. Stan Winston received a star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991 which is located at 6522 Hollywood Boulevard. The Hollywood Reporter honored Stan Winston with a full edition celebrating 25 years in 1995.
The new millennium brought more challenges and more accomplishments. Stan Winston still amazed audiences and colleagues alike with his creations for films Pearl Harbor, AI: Artificial Intelligence, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Constantine.
Stan had been personally less active in recent years as digital visual effects took a greater part of the available work and his illness advanced, but his studio continued to work on films such as Iron Man for which it provided the practical Iron Man suits, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
At the time of his death, Winston was in the process of morphing his physical makeup and effects studio into the new “Winston Effects Group” with the team of senior effects supervisors heading up the new company. Winston refused to discuss his illness outside his intimate circle, and even when an old friend spoke to Stan directly, Stan only admitted to having stomach surgery, denying any other illness.
Stan was surrounded by his family when he passed on June 15th, after a seven year struggle with multiple myeloma. He is survived by his wife, Karen; son Matt, an actor; daughter Debbie; a brother and four grandchildren.
So many Local 706 make-up artists began their careers working with Stan that it would be difficult to mention all of them. His guidance, enthusiasm, creative spirit and genuine love of film making opened doors for many of us, and he will never be forgotten.
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