Exclusively Update, John Singleton, 51, To Be Taken Off Life Support After Stroke

Esteemed director John Singleton was taken off life support on April 29, 13 days after news broke he was reportedly in a coma following a stroke. Celebrities are mourning their loss.

UPDATE, April 29 1:17pm: John Singleton will be taken off life support today, April 29, his family confirmed in a statement to our sister site, Deadline. “It is with heavy hearts we announce that our beloved son, father and friend, John Daniel Singleton will be taken off of life support today,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement. “This was an agonizing decision, one that our family made, over a number of days, with the careful counsel of John’s doctors. We are grateful to his fans, friends and colleagues for the outpour of love and prayers during this incredibly difficult time. We want to thank all the doctors at Cedars Sinai for the impeccable care he received.” You can read the full statement HERE.

UPDATE, April 29 10:10am: John Singleton’s publicist confirmed to HollywoodLife, “John is still on life support,” and that the reporting from FOX4 that he died this morning is “inaccurate.” The Kansas City news station reported on April 29 that John’s family told their film critic, Shawn Edwards, that the Boyz n the Hooddirector passed away after suffering a stroke and being placed in a medically-induced coma on April 17.

UPDATE, April 29 9:55am: while John’s family told FOX4 that the director passed away, his publicist told TMZthat he is reportedly still alive and on life support at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in LA. He is reportedly still in a medically-induced coma and “not getting better” after suffering a stroke on April 17. HollywoodLife has reached out to John’s publicist for clarification.

Exclusive update from hollywoodlife

ORIGINAL: John Singleton is leaving behind a respectable legacy in the entertainment industry, after he passed away at the age of 51 on April 29. His family announced the sad news in a statement to Kansas City’s FOX4 film critic Shawn Edwards. The death has rocked Hollywood, seeing that he counted celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Nia Long and Spike Lee among his friends and colleagues. “Showing love/support for a fellow black director from LA,” director Ava DuVernaywrote in a tweet. “He is a lovely man. Pray with me.” Prior to his death, John suffered a stroke on April 17, which his family members told TMZ. The director, producer and writer had already checked himself into the hospital earlier that week due to “weakness in the leg,” and one of the relatives worried that John’s medical emergency was “triggered” by a recent flight back from Costa Rica. While the stroke was initially described as “mild,” the outlet later claimed that it was actually “major.”

John’s claim to fame is the 1991 film Boyz n the Hood, which won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture and the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker. The coming-of-age film in South Los Angeles, which starred Cuba Gooding Jr., Angela Bassett, Ice Cube and Laurence Fishburne, was even selected for the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry in 2002 for its cultural significance. John went on to either direct, produce or write memorable films like Poetic Justice (1996),  2 Fast 2 Furious (2003) and Hustle & Flow (2005). On the television side, he directed an episode of Empire (2015) and American Crime Story (2016). Most recently, he served as the executive producer for the FX drama Snowfall between 2017 and 2019.

John’s impact in film and television will be remembered. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.