John Singleton Biography

John Singleton is the California filmmaker whose first movie, 1991’s Boyz N the Hood, made him an Oscar-nominated director at the age of 24. He died in 2019 after suffering a major stroke at the age of 51.

John Singleton was still a film student at the University of Southern California when he got the deal to make Boyz N the Hood, which featured future Hollywood stars Cuba Gooding, Jr., Laurence Fishburne (billed as Larry Fishburne) and Ice Cube. The movie’s success brought gangsta rap and the struggles of South Central Los Angeles to mainstream America, and Singleton became both the first black nominee and youngest-ever nominee for the Oscar for directing. (He was also Oscar-nominated for the screenplay.)

Singleton’s other movies include Poetic Justice (1993, starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur), Rosewood (1997, starring Ving Rhames), Shaft (starring Samuel L. Jackson), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2001) and Four Brothers (2005, starring Mark Wahlberg). Though always respected, his later films never quite earned the respect and buzz that Boyz N the Hood generated.

John Singleton also produced well-received independent films, including Hustle & Flow (2005, starring Terrence Howard) and Black Snake Moan (2006, with Christina Ricci). He suffered a massive stroke in April of 2019; a few weeks later, on April 29, 2019, his family removed him from life support and he died later that day.