The history-making director John Singleton will be taken off life support on Monday, his family said. He is 51.
Singleton, best known for the film Boyz n the Hood, will be taken off life support after suffering a stroke earlier this month, his family said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that our beloved son, father and friend, John Daniel Singleton will be taken off of life support today,” Singleton’s family said. “This was an agonizing decision, one that our family made, over a number of days, with the careful counsel of John’s doctors.”
Singleton had a stroke on April 17 and was at an intensive care unit, his family said. Court fillings last week by Singleton’s mother, Sheila Ward, revealed Singleton was in a coma after having the stroke, the Associated Press reported. Ward requested to be appointed her son’s temporary conservator to take over financial and medical decisions for him.
A native of South Central Los Angeles, Singleton graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in 1990. Two years later, he became the youngest person and first African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his debut 1991 film Boyz n the Hood. He also earned a second nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The largely autobiographical film examined the lives of three black teenagers living alongside gang violence in South Central Los Angeles.
Singleton’s other credits include Poetic Justice (1993), Rosewood (1997), Shaft (2000) and 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). Most recently, Singleton was working on the FX TV series Snowfall, a show looking at the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles in the early 1980s.
