Remembering John Singleton
His “Boyz N the Hood” was a game-changer.
The loss of groundbreaking filmmaker John Singleton prompted tributes for the writer/director whose singular filmmaking voice began with his stunning debut, “Boyz N the Hood,” which brought the harsh life realities of young black men in Los Angeles’ Crenshaw neighborhood to light. With that movie, Singleton became the first African American to be nominated for a best-director Oscar – and the youngest nominee at 24.
“John was a brave artist and a true inspiration. His vision changed everything,” tweeted director Jordan Peele, who has hailed Singleton as a major influence and “Boyz in the Hood” as a masterpiece. The Library of Congress inducted the movie into the National Film Registry in 2002.
Singleton, 51, who had quietly coped with hypertension, had been taken off life support after suffering a stroke April 17. He died Monday surrounded by his family and friends, his family said. Singleton was a “supernova” 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,” the family’s statement said.
Singleton grew up in South Los Angeles and drew from his own experiences for the drama about three friends dealing with everything from gangs to racist cops as they navigate life.
“I was living this film before I ever thought about making it,” Singleton told Vice in 2016 in conjunction with the film’s 25th anniversary.
Months after graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Singleton cast the unknown Cuba Gooding Jr. as Tre, introduced Morris Chestnut as the football scholarship-bound Ricky, and gave NWA rapper Ice Cube his first acting role as Ricky’s brother Doughboy. Laurence Fishburne starred as Furious, Tre’s respected father, based on Singleton’s own father, who steered his son away from the pitfalls of street life toward education.
Singleton knew Gooding and Chestnut were right for the roles after their first script read and canceled the rest of the day’s auditions.
“I said I was going to lunch. We had seven more people to see! But I just said, ‘This guy’s gonna be Tre, and the chocolate guy’s gonna be Ricky,’ ” Singleton
told Vice. “‘I’m gonna go eat. Goodbye!’ ”
The film exploded to critical acclaim when it premiered in 1991 at Cannes Film Festival in France before turning into a $57 million box-office hit.
Critic Roger Ebert’s review hailed the “important” film as a “a human drama of rare power – Academy Award material. Singleton is a director who brings together two attributes not always found in the same film: He has a subject, and he has a style.”
Two years after director Spike Lee was snubbed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 1989’s “Do the Right Thing,” Singleton’s “Boyz in the Hood” earned him historic Oscar nominations for directing and original screenplay.
Singleton didn’t wait to be offered other films in a Hollywood that “didn’t know what to do with me,” telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2018 that he took advice from director Francis Ford Coppola: “Try to write as many of your works as possible so that you have a singular voice.”
He displayed that voice in his followup films, writing and directing the romantic drama “Poetic Justice,” starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur; 1997’s “Rosewood,” a historical drama featuring the white mob massacre against a town of black residents; and 2001’s coming-of-age drama “Baby Boy,” which revolved around an unemployed man (Tyrese Gibson) living in his mother’s home.
He directed Samuel L. Jackson as New York City police detective in 2000’s “Shaft” remake, went into full action mode with Paul Walker in 2003’s “2 Fast 2 Furious” and helmed Taylor Lautner in the 2011 thriller “Abduction.”
Singleton returned to his South Central Los Angeles roots for the 2017 TV series “Snowfall,” which focused on the impact of the 1980s crack epidemic.
“This show is the root of all that,” Singleton told USA TODAY in 2017. “This is before the events of ‘Boys N the Hood’ and subsequent films. It’s the South Central L.A. of my childhood that I remember, very sunny, beautiful. There was always an undercurrent of danger, but it was never as bad as it is going to get.”
Looking back, Singleton thought his hard-charging way of life led to his long career.
“There’s hardly any precedent for a guy like me to have the career that I’ve had,” Singleton told The Hollywood Reporter. “Because I grew up the way I grew up, I’m an in-your-face kind of guy. I developed that as a defense mechanism to survive in the streets. I do that in Hollywood in the service of my passion.”
But the divorced father of seven found his greatest joy cruising the Pacific Ocean on his sailboat, called J’s Dream. His family paid homage to the influence of his work and his inner peace.
“We who have grown up with John, made movies with him, sailed with John and laughed with John, know the universe of calm and creativity he created for so many,” the family’s statement said. “Now in the wake of his death, we must navigate the storm without him. It is, for us, heartbreaking.”