John Singleton, the groundbreaking director of Boys N The Hood, died Monday at age 51.
After suffering a stroke on April 17, Singleton was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he passed away surrounded by friends and family.
In a statement to Deadline, his family said: “We want to thank the amazing doctors at Cedars-Sinai Hospital for their expert care and kindness and we again want thank all of John’s fans, friends and colleagues for all of the love and support they showed him during this difficult time.”
The director, producer, and writer garnered Hollywood’s attention at the age of 23 with 1991’s Boys N The Hood, one of the decade’s best films and one of the most accomplished feature directorial debuts ever. Boys earned Singleton two Oscar nominations for writing and directing. In fact, Singleton — at age 24 — became the youngest person in Academy Awards history to ever receive a Best Director nomination. He was also the first black filmmaker nominated in the category, which helped pave the way for future nominees like Moonlight‘s Barry Jenkins and Get Out‘s Jordan Peele.
Boyz N the Hood helped set a benchmark as his voice spoke to an audience with stories they had never seen before. It would quickly become a cultural touchstone and legacy piece of Hollywood filmmaking, especially when the U.S. Library of Congress selected the film in 2002 for preservation in the National Film Registry
The USC grad parlayed Boys‘ success into an impressive run at Columbia Pictures, where he had three films get the greenlight in five years — something few contemporary directors ever achieve.
Singleton also directed the 2000 Shaft remake, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and the first Fast and the Furious sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious in 2003.
Most recently, Singleton found success on the small screen; he co-created and executive produced the FX TV drama Snowfall, which explores the beginnings of the crack epidemic in Los Angeles. He also directed episodes of Showtime’s Billions and FX’s American Crime Story.
He is survived by his mother, Sheila Ward, his father, Danny Singleton, along with his children Justice, Maasai, Hadar, Cleopatra, Selenesol, Isis, and Seven.
