Jordan Strauss/WireImage.comStan Winston wasn't just a monster mogul. He was also a kid at heart, a Beatles fan and a Hollywood visionary.
That's according to colleagues who gathered in Los Angeles on Sunday to remember the Oscar-winning special-effects master, who died June 15 at age 62 after a seven-year battle with cancer.
"He inspired a generation of fans," James Cameron, one of the F/X maestro's closest collaborators, said at a private memorial service at the Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary.
"I think that just maybe the words of a bunch of people who didn't even know him personally may be his best tribute," Cameron continued before reading aloud a number of online tributes from fanboys at Ain't It Cool News. The Titanic helmer also revealed that he spoke to Winston the day before his death and proclaimed their mutual love.
Winston, who died of multiple myeloma, earned Academy Awards for creating the out-of-this-world monsters in Cameron's Aliens and Terminator movies, as well as the eye-popping dinos populating Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park.
For his part, Spielberg hailed Winston's extraodinary ability to turn artists' imaginations into reality.
"What Stan did is that he took our dreams—he took all of our dreams—and he blended them with his own dreams," said Spielberg. "He then workshopped those dreams with pencil, clay and, later years on, the computer. He would basically give life to all of our ideas. He would make them come to life."
Other showbiz associates and friends in attendance: Aliens star Sigourney Weaver; actor Robert Patrick, who played the T-1000 cyborg in T2; Iron Man filmmaker Jon Favreau; and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his True Lies sidekick Tom Arnold.
Son Matt Winston recalled that after a tearful goodbye to his family, filled with kisses, hugs and laughter, the last song his father heard was the Beatles' "All My Loving."