John Singleton Dies at Age 51, His Family Confirms

Director John Singleton speaks onstage during the 70th Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Feb. 3, 2018. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images for DGA

John Singleton, the director best known for “Boyz n the Hood,” died at age 51, said his family in a statement on the afternoon of April 29.

“We want to thank the amazing doctors at Cedars-Sinai Hospital for their expert care and kindness and we again want thank all of John’s fans, friends and colleagues for all of the love and support they showed him during this difficult time,” the family said in a statement to Deadline Hollywood.

It came after his family removed the director from life support.

According to CNN, “John passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family and friends,” Singleton’s family said.

Singleton was a native of South Central Los Angeles, the community that was the setting for “Boyz n the Hood,” a drama about friendship amid the peril of gang violence.

He became the first African-American and the youngest person to be nominated for an Academy Award for best director, at age 24, for the movie.

Singleton later directed movies such as action film “2 Fast 2 Furious” and historical drama “Rosewood.” He is the creator and executive producer of current cable TV series “Snowfall” about the start of the cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles.

“I think I was living this film before I ever thought about making it,” Singleton told Vice in 2016 about “Boyz n the Hood.” “As I started to think about what I wanted to do with my life, and cinema became an option, it was just natural that this was probably gonna be my first film. In fact, when I applied to USC Film School they had a thing that asked you to write three ideas for films. And one of them was called Summer of ’84, which was about growing up in South Central LA.”

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Reuters contributed to this report.