Acclaimed director John Singleton passed away on April 29, 2019 at the age of 51. He first broke on the scene the hugely successful Boyz in the Hood, starring Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr, Laurence Fishburne and Regina King. The film earned him two Oscar nominations – Best Original Screenplay and Best Director – becoming the first African American, and youngest ever, Best Director nominee.
Later highlights included Poetic Justice (starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur), Higher Learning, Shaft, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Four Brothers, and his final film, 2011’s Abduction. Later in life he transitioned to television, directing an Emmy-nominated episode of The People vs OJ Simpson, episodes of Empire and Billions, and directing the pilot and co-creating the FX drama Snowfall. (Source: Collider Videos)
RIP John Singleton: 1968 – 2019
His movies in the 90’s were some of my only access to black culture. Being brown and growing up in a white country town in outback Australia pre-internet, his movies played a big role in my adolescent life.