I've seen his name around here a few times in regards to the Patterson Bigfoot.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainm...winston-de.html

Terrible news. Although I was never fully convinced by his gorillas (or anyone else's I guess) I certainly appreciated his creativity and genius at his craft. What an amazing resume including a number of upcoming films I didn't even know about (T4?, GI Joe?).

Here a small tribute: Real life fake gorilla

RIP Stan.

Hi

Stan Winston did a few things on the BF subject, The list of movies his studio have been into is amazing,

http://www.stanwinstonstudio.com/home.html


RIP Stan : Thanks for all the great Monsters

Peace and many adventures beyond
Tim

apeman:


I want to hear more about why Mr. Winston's gorillas wernt fully convincing.

When I watched your link, the only thing I noticed was the fingers seemed too small.

What are your thoughts?

Don't get me wrong, his gorillas, and Baker's, and some others have been fantastic and are very convincing. At least as convincing as most of the Hollywood SFX we see, digital, make-up or otherwise. And I'm very reluctant to say anything critical about such a master, especially when mourning. The biggest thing is just that I know gorillas better than the average bear, and I have a pretty good eye, so it's fairly easy for me to pick out small subleties that give things away. It's hard to put a finger on those things but I've never seen a good costume or mask with convincing eyes or "realistic" facial skin (proper shine/sheen???). The clip I posted is fantastic though that has a lot to do with a very good actor or I guess 'mime' is the proper term Bill has taught us, but it's hard to really evaluate the costume in that clip.

But you picked up the obvious problem, which even Peter Jackson totally botched, the fingers and hands are WAY too small. A tough issue to overcome for a costumed actor and probably not a complete effort in that clip. I used to compare my hands to a small gorilla we were taking care of, have photos somewhere, but even a 50'ish pound gorilla has wider (and stubbier) hands than most adult men. Lots of zoos have great exhibits showing hand molds or impressions but I don't recall ever taking a really comparative photo of one. But you obviously know what I'm talking about.

Ok, so favorite Winston creation? Even thought the stop-action was terrible, I'll go with the original Terminator (he didn't design the original Alien right?)

-A

Stan pushed the envelope in many technical and artistic ways which benefited everyone in the profesion. His legacy will endure as one of the industry's true great artists and innovators.

Bill


Apeman: Stan did Aliens (part 2) and the badass "queen mother" alien. The first was done by HR Giger and I believe Carlo Rambaldi doing the headpiece animation.

Stan was awesome. But even he could not reproduce (certainly not in 1967) the amazing footage we have from Paterson and Gimlin. Just another proof that this footage is genuine. Haters don't want to admit this.