RIP Stan Winston, Algis Budrys & Iris Owens

Stan Winston died yesterday. It is possible that the lackluster Aliens vs. Predator franchise would not be around had not Winston set down the conceptual flagstones in previous films. Nor would the Terminator and Jurassic Park franchises be what they are without Winston’s T-800 exoskeleton or the dinosaurs. Sometimes, Winston’s work entered derivative territory (see The Monster Squad and Pumpkinhead). But there was often a playful streak in his designs. He worked very well with Tim Burton, devising the mechanics of Edward Scissorhands and the decrepit corpulence of Batman Returns‘s Penguin. And I’ll certainly miss his continuing contributions to cinema.

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The only American newspaper to include an obituary of Algis Budrys’s recent death is The Chicago Tribune. The other newspapers remain silent, including those that employed Budrys as a science fiction critic. But there have been many reactions online:

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Finally, Richard Grayson sends word that Iris Owens has passed on, offering this remembrance. A guestbook is available here.

One Comment

  1. Real question someone once asked me at the video store where I worked for five long years: “This Pumpkinhead 2 — is this the sequel to Pumpkinhead?”

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