Stan Winston

Stan Winston


Stan Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American visual effects supervisor, make-up artist, and film director. He was best known for his work in the Terminator series, the Jurassic Park series, Aliens, the Predator series, Iron Man and Edward Scissorhands.He won four Academy Awards for his work.

Winston, a frequent collaborator with director James Cameron, owned more than one effects studio, including Stan Winston Digital. The established areas of expertise for Winston were in makeup, puppets and practical effects, but he had recently expanded his studio to encompass digital effects as well.

One of the founders of visual effects companies Digital Domain, Stan Winston Digital and Stan Winston studios.

Only the second special effects artist to be honored with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Stars.

He studied painting and sculpture at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and graduated in 1968.

He moved to Hollywood in 1968. At first he wanted to be an actor, but no jobs came his way and the following year he became an apprentice in the Makeup Department at Walt Disney Studios.

He has become known primarily as a “creature creator.” His first such assignment was for the TV movie Gargoyles (1972) (TV).

Father of actor Matt Winston and daughter.

Made a living as a stand-up comedian before moving into make-up effects.

Helped out on some Special Effects scenes in The Thing (1982) when Rob Bottin was suffering from exhaustion at the time due to his immensely heavy workload.

Father-in-law of Amy Smallman.

Has four grandchildren.

Has a brother.

While filming Predator (1987), Winston returned to his hotel one day, to find his shower crawling with frogs. Convinced that this was a prank by Arnold Schwarzenegger, he called in the help of members of his special effects crew in catching the frogs in a pillow case and releasing them into Arnold’s bed. Neither Stan nor Arnold dared to bring up the subject the next day. Years later, Winston was on a talk-show and recounted the entire story, knowing Arnold would be a guest in that show the next day. But the next day, Arnold commented on the story by swearing he had nothing to do with the prank, upon which Winston’s crew members finally confessed they had played the prank on him. They knew Arnold was innocent but had decided to let Winston get even with him anyway.

He was awarded the Virginia Film’s Festival Virginia Film Award in 1999 and was a member of the festival’s advisory board.