Stan Winston has died, aged 62.

It’s funny how you keep hearing a name circulating around all your favourite movies, but you never really put the two together. You never realise just how much of your imagination’s landscape has been sculpted by a single man.

Stan Winston, among his many, many achievements, created

this-

this-

this-

and even, surprisingly, this-

Edward, obviously, not Winona Ryder. Although that would explain a lot.

But that was the thing about Stan Winston. You’d find his names in the credits for the strangest movies. It’s no surprise he worked on John Carpenter’s The Thing, or did effects for Friday the 13th Part 3, but it’s more surprising when you’re watching the credits for Batman Returns or Pearl Harbor, and you see the now-famous line “Special makeup and creature effects by Stan Winston”.

Most recently, Stan was the genius behind making everyone’s favourite invalid alcoholic superhero Iron Man look credible in real life

I mean, that could have easily looked ridiculous. But instead, Stan made it look AWESOME.

Stan had apparently been battling cancer for a few years, and in a testament to what a reportedly great guy he was, he kept working right up until he physically couldn’t any more. I’m sure we all dream about going out doing something we love, and Stan basically got that. He went far too early, but then, everyone does.

With his incredible imagination and endless creativity, Stan Winston has made a mark on me for the rest of my life. Not just by adding to my own imagination’s cast of characters and my cultural shorthand, but because I will be looking over my shoulder in the dead of night half-suspecting to see one of these bloody things

pretty much until the day I die. Which may or may not be caused by Velociraptors. I have, of course, already taken precautions against this eventuality, but you never know. They’re extremely intelligent, move at cheetah speed .. and they remember.

Thanks for the nightmares, Stan.