Director John Singleton to be taken off life support after stroke, family says

Two-time Oscar-nominated director John Singleton will be taken off life support following a stroke, the 51-year-old’s family has confirmed.

In a statement provided to EW through a representative, the Boyz N the Hood filmmaker‘s family announced Monday they will cease Singleton’s life-support functions at the Los Angeles-based Cedars Sinai hospital.

“This was an agonizing decision, one that our family made, over a number of days, with the careful counsel of John’s doctors,” the statement reads. “We are grateful to his fans, friends and colleagues for the outpour of love and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.”

The statement also indicates Singleton “quietly struggled with hypertension,” a condition characterized by abnormally high blood pressure. Still, it continues, Singleton’s private life included being a “loving and supporting father, son, brother, and friend who believed in higher education, black culture, old school music and the power of film.”

Over the weekend, Singleton’s family announced the director had previously suffered a stroke at the hospital on Wednesday, April 17. He was treated at the ICU under “great medical care,” according to a release.

Across Singleton’s 30-year career as a filmmaker, his work on 1991’s Boyz N the Hood resulted in him becoming the first African American to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. He would go on to helm a diverse range of projects, from studio blockbusters like 2 Fast 2 Furious and prestige dramas like Poetic Justice, to co-creating and executive-producing the FX series Snowfall, which was renewed for a third season in September.

“[He is] a prolific, ground-breaking director who changed the game and opened doors in Hollywood, a world that was just a few miles away, yet worlds away, from the neighborhood in which he grew up,” his family’s statement continues. “John was such a supernova in his youth that we forget that he was only beginning to fully assert his gifts as a director.”

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