RIP, Stan Winston

A legend in the effects industry quietly passes from this world:

Stan Winston, the renowned makeup, creature- and visual-effects wizard whose memorable work on "Aliens," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Jurassic Park" earned him four Academy Awards, has died. He was 62.

Winston died of complications from multiple myeloma Sunday at his home in Malibu, said his son, actor Matt Winston...

Winston, as the New Yorker magazine described several years ago, was known for "almost single-handedly elevating the craft of creature making from the somewhat comic man-in-a-rubber-suit monsters of the 1950s and '60s to animatronics -- electronically animated, part-robot, part-puppet creatures that have terrified millions of moviegoers."

Indeed, 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 life-size Tyrannosaurus rex.

As an avid sci-fi movie fan growing up, I've probably seen more of Winston's work on screen than I could possibly recall, but the real genius of his art was the stuff you didn't see: special effects that were so beautiful and seemless that you couldn't discern where the fantasy ended and reality began. I remember seeing and hearing that T-Rex bellow when I first watched Jurassic Park in the theatre; I still get goose bumps and a ringing in my ear when I think about it. The special effects industry in Hollywood now stands on the thin shoulders of this groundbreaking innovator.