After a day of incorrect news reports and corrections, a representative for filmmaker John Singleton has confirmed that the director, producer and screenwriter has died. He was 51 years old.
According to an earlier statement given to Deadline, Singleton originally suffered a major stroke 13 days ago. He remained in a coma at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles ever since, until his family decided to take him off life support earlier today.
From Singleton's family:
It is with heavy hearts we announce that our beloved son, father and friend, John Daniel Singleton passed away today due to complications from a stroke he suffered last Wednesday.
John Singleton was a prolific, ground-breaking director who changed the game and opened doors in Hollywood, a world that was just a few miles away, yet worlds away, from the neighborhood in which he grew up.
John grew up in South Central L.A with a love of cinema that showed itself early on. He went on to become one of the most lauded graduates of the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Within months of graduating, John returned to South Central to shoot his debut feature, Boyz N the Hood. The movie, which was unusually shot in sequence, masterfully captured a story of friendship, youth and the peril of hard choices in a community marred by gang violence. The film earned special honors at its debut at Cannes and Singleton went onto become the youngest director and first African-American writer-director nominated for the Academy Award. Two decades later, the film was placed in the Library of Congress, a marker of its cultural and historical significance.
Singleton went on to direct several other popular and successful films since Boyz n the Hood, including Poetic Justice (starring Janet Jackson and the late Tupac Shakur), Higher Learning, Rosewood, 2 Fast 2 Furious, the 2000 remake of Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson, Four Brothers, and Baby Boy, starring Tyrese Gibson, Snoop Dogg, and award-winning actress Taraji P. Henson in her debut movie role. Singleton also helped finance the independent film Hustle & Flow, for which Memphis rap group Three 6 Mafia won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp."
Rest in peace to a unique and groundbreaking creative who changed the filmmaking industry for the better with his vision of inclusion, dedication to reality, and insistence on being in control of the narrative when it comes to the stories of African-American lives, families, neighborhoods and communities. He made Hollywood better, and he'll always be remembered for it.
Thank you John Singleton!
