Breaking News Emails
Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
SUBSCRIBE
By Minyvonne Burke and Andrew Blankstein
“Boyz n the Hood” director John Singleton will be taken off life support weeks after suffering a stroke, his family said Monday.
“This was an agonizing decision, one that our family made, over a number of days, with the careful counsel of John’s doctors,” his family said in a statement.
The Academy Award-nominated director, 51, was placed in a medically-induced coma after suffering a stroke on April 17 while in the hospital. Singleton’s family said he had hypertension, which is abnormally high blood pressure that puts extra stress on blood vessels and vital organs.
Late last week Singleton’s mother, Shelia Ward, filed court documents seeking to be appointed as a temporary conservator to make medical decisions and to handle his business affairs.
“We are grateful to his fans, friends and colleagues for the outpour of love and prayers during this incredibly difficult time,” the family said Monday. “We want to thank all the doctors at Cedars Sinai for the impeccable care he received.”
Singleton directed a number of iconic films that examined the complexities of inner-city life and coming of age for African Americans including “Poetic Justice” and “Baby Boy.” He’s also behind the movies “Abduction,” “Shaft,” “2 Fast 2 Furious,” “Rosewood” and “Four Brothers.”
Most recently, Singleton was the creator and executive producer of the FX drama “Snowfall,” about the start of the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles and “its ultimate radical impact on the culture as we know it,” according to FX Networks. In September, the show was renewed for a third season.
At 24, Singleton became the youngest and the first black filmmaker to receive an Oscar nomination for best director and best original screenplay for “Boyz n the Hood,” starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Angela Bassett, Nia Long, Regina King and Laurence Fishburne.
The 1991 crime-drama, centered on three friends growing up during the gang and drug culture in South Central Los Angeles, became one of Singleton’s most notable films and remains a classic to this day.
His family called him “prolific” and said his work “changed the game and opened doors in Hollywood.”