RIP Stan Winston

Well that sucks. I didn't even know he was sick. A guy whose award winning make-up and practical effects artistry was part and parcel to some of the coolest films of my childhood (Terminator, Monster Squad...heck even more recently with Iron Man just to name a few)

It's pretty knee-jerk for me to say I wanted to start acting because of Star Wars. (When it was actually my mom encouraging me to try out for the 9th grade play and there were some really really cute girls auditioning) We role played like a lot of kids, but the thing we really liked to do was get into the characters. Dressing up of course was the easy part. But as I got older, my taste kinda shifted into scary monsters.

Mom did make-up/props for the Park and Rec as well as some local community theatre productions. Sometimes it was a clown face-painting class. Other times it was during "theme" days during the summer programs. I'll never forget (and still probably have) the dog-eared copy of Dick Smith's (Make-Up designer for "The Exorcist" and "Altered States") "Do-it-Yourself" Monster Make-up. It talked about grease paint, and crepe hair. It had the pictures that started with normal looking kids and after slicking back one's hair and painting a black upside down triangle at your forehead scalp line, putting on lipstick and a little fake blood made you a vampire.

In my early teens, I was experimenting with facial hair and gel masks. I was reading about Universal Monster films, Hammer Horror, watching Freddy's/Jason's/Leatherfaces in their original stories tear up the screen. I read Fangoria. I learned about Lon Chaney Srs "low-tech" approach to special effects. I learned about Jack Pierce- the original Make Up celebrity- responsible for Karloff's Frankenstein's Monster and Chaney Jrs Wolf-Man.

I tried to emulate their work. I futzed with spirit gum and crepe hair with less than spectacular results. I used a brown paper bag and paint to try and make Frankenstein's flat top work. I fashioned a gaping head-wound from a styrofoam plate and crepe hair. Fake skin. Pointed tooth caps. I started learning about the contemporary FX teams. Rick Baker (the First person to win an Academy Award for Special Effects for "American Werewolf in London") Tom Savini, and of course:

Stan Winston

Here was a guy who loved Harryhausen (As is evident in the final scene in Terminator when they're getting chased by the stop-motion Termy through the factory) A guy who eschewed CGI when CGI was getting popular. A guy who wins multiple Academy Awards for making the big named hubba-bubba's look cool.

No. I think I wanted to be an actor because it gave me a chance to work with make up and effects. I thought it'd be cool to be the guy sitting in the chair while a plaster mold was made of my face so that they could make appliances that fit my face specifically. To sit down in a chair while those special FX were applied and my eyes are closed, only to open them and find someone completely different staring back. I had the utmost respect for those folks. And we've just lost one of the great ones.