John Daniel Singleton (January 22, 1968 – April 28, 2019) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He was best known for writing and directing Boyz n the Hood (1991), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, becoming, at age 24, the first African American and youngest person to have ever been nominated for that award. Singleton was a native of South Los Angeles, and many of his films, such as Poetic Justice (1993), Higher Learning (1995), and Baby Boy (2001), had themes which resonated with the contemporary urban population. He also directed the drama Rosewood (1997) and the action films Shaft (2000), 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003), and Four Brothers (2005). He co-created the television crime drama Snowfall. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for “The Race Card”, the fifth episode of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.John Daniel Singleton was born in Los Angeles, the son of Sheila Ward-Johnson, a pharmaceutical company sales executive, and Danny Singleton, a real estate agent, mortgage broker, and financial planner. He attended Blair High School, Pasadena City College and the USC School of Cinematic Arts. He graduated from USC in 1990 and was a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He had considered pursuing computer science but enrolled in USC’s Film Writing program under Margaret Mehring. The program was designed to take students directly into the Hollywood system as proficient writer/directors. He cited the original Star Wars film as one of his strongest influences, and the work of Steven Spielberg as a source of inspiration.Singleton’s film debut Boyz n the Hood (1991), an inner-city drama starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Angela Bassett, Ice Cube, and Laurence Fishburne, was both a critical and commercial success. For his efforts, Singleton received Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. At age 24 he was the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director, and the first African American to be nominated for the award. (Four others; Lee Daniels, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, and Spike Lee have been nominated since.) The film has since attained classic status and, in 2002, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.His directing ability led to the “Remember the Time” music video for Michael Jackson, His next films were Poetic Justice (1993) and Higher Learning (1995). The film Rosewood (1997), Singleton’s historical drama about racial violence, was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival. Both this film and Baby Boy (2001) received very positive reviews and helped establish Singleton’s critical reputation. Additionally, his adaptation of Shaft (2000), starring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role, was successful critically and commercially. Singleton later turned to directing action films, such as 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Four Brothers (2005). Also, in 2005, he teamed with Craig Brewer and financed the independent film Hustle and Flow. After directing episodes of the TV shows Empire and American Crime Story, he served as an executive producer of the crime drama series Rebel for BET and co-created Snowfall for FX.Singleton had five children. With former wife, Tosha Lewis, he had a daughter named Justice Maya Singleton (born in 1992) and a son, Maasai Mohandas Singleton (born in 1994). In 1996, he married Ghanaian actress Akosua Gyamama Busia, the daughter of Ghana’s second Prime Minister Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia. The couple had a daughter named Hadar Singleton, born in 1997, who appeared in Tears of the Sun (2003) and other films. Singleton and Busia divorced in June 1997. He also had daughters, Cleopatra Singleton (born 1998) and Isis (born in 2010) with Mitzi Andrews, an actress/model based in Toronto, Canada.In 2014, Singleton criticized popular studios for “refusing to let African Americans direct black-themed films”. The black films now—so-called black films now—they’re great. They’re great films. But they’re just product. They’re not moving the bar forward creatively. …When you try to make it homogenized, when you try to make it appeal to everybody, then you don’t have anything that’s special. In 2017, Singleton was accused of sexual harassment by a journalist who interviewed him.On April 17, 2019, Singleton suffered a stroke and was placed under intensive care. He reportedly began to experience weakness in his legs after returning to the United States from a trip to Costa Rica. On April 25, it was reported that he was in a coma, but his daughter stated otherwise. On April 28, Singleton was removed from life support, and he died at the age of 51 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is survived by his mother, his father, and his seven children.Dozens of actors and musicians paid tribute to him.Rapper and actor Ice Cube, who worked with Singleton in Boyz n the Hood and Higher Learning, said: “There are no words to express how sad I am to lose my brother, friend & mentor. He loved [to] bring the black experience to the world.” Cuba Gooding Jr., who was given his first major role by Singleton in Boyz n the Hood, paid tribute to his late friend by singing “One Day More” from Les Misérables, a favorite song of Singleton.A private funeral was held on May 6, 2019 in Los Angeles, and Singleton was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills. The official cause of death was acute ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and hypertension.
Written by Dianne Washington