News of this is everywhere.

A real shame too. I didn't know the guy, but he did a lot of really great stuff. Too bad. If I were Stan Winston, I'd have allready designed my own headstone, complete with robotic ghoul that would periodically dig itself up out of my grave and scare people. But that's me. His will probably be way more subdued.

Anyway, R.I.P

Now we'll never get to see him realize the vision of Veliciraptor mercenaries with guns from 'Jurassic Park 4'. Actually to be fair, if anyone could make that look cool it would have been Stan. He will be missed. A visual effects God.

One could argue that the new Terminator film died today as well - Stan was the only good thing it had going. His studio will continue, but the heart gone.

Rest in Peace Stan

I'm having visions of the Jim Henson co after Jim died how truly sad this is.

Obviously this story is a couple days old, but I think it's appropriate for this forum especially to celebrate the accomplishments of one of the great creative talents in cinema history.

AICN has a terrific tribute going featuring thoughts from those who knew and worked with Stan Winston. You can find that here.

Although I'm just a simple film goer with no personal attachment to the man whatsoever, I couldn't help but be touched by his passing. His work was the stuff of legend and from what I've seen in interviews and heard through those that knew him, Stan was a hell of a guy. I remember watching a couple webdocs for Jurassic Park 3 a bunch of years ago with Stan physically acting out the fight between the Rex and Spinosaur. It was literally like watching a big kid filled with imagination playing with toys. You can't help but love people who are that passionate about what they do.

Whenever I saw Stan's name associated with a project, I always knew at the very least we were going to get unbelievable practical effects no matter the subject of the picture. There aren't many guys in any field whose name you associate with excellence of the highest kind and Stan was one of them.

This guy alone is responsible for making special effects seem realistic. If not for him, all special effects would be CGI and would not look very real at all. But because of him, filmmakers now feel they need to only use CGI when it would be impossible otherwise. Jon Favreau understood this with Iron Man and went with the person, Stan Winston, who understood how to make the practical effects essential. God Bless him.