Vale – John Singleton
Academy Award-nominated director John Singleton, known for his breakout hit Boyz N The Hood, has passed away.
Nominated for an Oscar at only 24, Singleton became the youngest director to garner the nomination from the Academy, and also became the first African American to receive the commendation as well. Boyz N The Hood was one of the early black films to depict inner city life in the 1990’s, prior to the Rodney King riots, and starred (among others) Cuba Gooding Jr, Laurence Fishburne (still credited as Larry Fishburne at that point) and Angela Bassett. The film would also grab a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Oscars for Singleton.
Singleton’s followup films, Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995) and Baby Boy (2001) continued with an ongoing theme of race and violence in urban sprawl, while the director branched out into action films with a remake of Shaft (2000), the Fast & Furious sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), Four Brothers (2005), and the Taylor Lautner actioner Abduction, in 2011. A contemporary of Spike Lee, and a noted producer and screenwriter, Singleton also directed episodes of ongoing series’ Empire, Billions, and created Snowfall. He was a producer on noted films including Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan.
John Singleton suffered a stroke on April 17th, 2019. He remained on life-support until April 29th, when his family made the decision to remove him from this treatment. Mr Singleton passed away the same day, aged 51.
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