Stan Winston was a renowned makeup, creature- and visual-effects wizard whose memorable work on “Alien,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Jurassic Park” earned him four Academy Awards.
In a nearly four-decade career that began on television in the 1970s, Winston earned five Emmy nominations and shared Emmys for his makeup on “Gargoyles” (1972) and “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), for which actress Cicely Tyson was aged into a 110-year-old woman.
Winston, who segued into the movies the same decade –- he was the special makeup designer on “The Wiz” –- became a seminal figure in special makeup effects and animatronics.
Among the creations to come out of the Stan Winston Studio: the menacing, 14-foot-tall Alien Queen in “Aliens,” the extraterrestrial jungle creature in “Predator,” the futuristic cyborg assassins in the “Terminator” movies and the life-size dinosaurs in the “Jurassic Park” movies, which included a frightening Tyrannosaurus rex.
Winston and his team also designed and created the makeup and the scissors and blade appendages for “Edward Scissorhands.”
Among his other film credits are “Interview with the Vampire,” “Lost World,” “Batman Returns” and “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.”
He shared Oscars for best effects, visual effects for “Aliens” (1986) and “Jurassic Park” (1993) and shared Oscars for best effects, visual effects and for best makeup for “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991).
“What I will miss most is his easy laugh every time he said to me, ‘Nothing is impossible,’” Steven Spielberg said of this colleague.
Born April 7, 1946, in Arlington, Va., Winston as a child developed an interest in drawing, puppetry and classic horror films. He graduated from the fine arts and drama programs of the University of Virginia in 1968.
After heading to Hollywood in 1969 with a dream of an acting career that was quickly dashed, he entered a three-year makeup apprenticeship at Walt Disney Studios and launched the Stan Winston Studio in the garage of his Northridge home in 1972.
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Year | Category | Work | |
---|---|---|---|
1981 | Best Makeup | Heartbeeps | Nomination |
1986 | Best Visual Effects | Aliens | Win* |
1987 | Best Visual Effects | Predator | Nomination* |
1990 | Best Makeup | Edward Scissorhands | Nomination* |
1991 | Best Visual Effects | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | Win* |
1991 | Best Makeup | Terminator 2: Judgment Day | Win* |
1992 | Best Makeup | Batman Returns | Nomination* |
1993 | Best Visual Effects | Jurassic Park | Win* |
1997 | Best Visual Effects | The Lost World: Jurassic Park | Nomination* |
2001 | Best Visual Effects | A.I.: Artificial Intelligence | Nomination* |
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