Stan Winston: From ‘child at heart’ to ‘wise sage’

The DEATH last week of Academy Award-winning makeup, creature and visual effects artist Stan Winston at 62 hit the industry hard. In his early years, Winston earned five Emmy nominations; he got his first Academy Award nomination in 1981 for “Heartbeeps,” and received nine more nominations -- in both makeup and visual effects categories -- over the next 20 years. He won four Oscars, for “Aliens,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Jurassic Park,” for which he created full-scale animatronic dinosaurs.

Here are a few reminiscences; for many more, go to latimes.com/entertainment:

“For us movie sci-fi fans, this is huge loss as well I’m sure it is to the entertainment/special effects industry. Mr. Winston will easily stand among the greats such as [Willis] O’Brien and [Ray] Harryhausen. . . . He always seemed to be a child at heart.”

-- O. Amaro

“I’ve been a huge fan of Stan Winston for most of my life. He was an incredible talent, a wise sage, and a wonderful human being.”

-- goddessofgore

“He was always very supportive of my work, he was a great character to be with, fun and always ready to help. We will never know what other amazing creatures he may have had in store for us all from Winston Studios.”

-- John and Angela Alexander