John Singleton's Net Worth Was Around $35 Million at Time of Death: Reports
John Singleton was reportedly worth around $35 million at the time of his death.
Singleton, the first African-American man to be nominated for a Best Directing Oscar, died on Monday after being taken off of life support following a stroke. He was 51.
Several outlets have since reported that the director was worth around $35 million before he died.
Singleton suffered a “major stroke” after arriving back in the U.S. from a trip to Costa Rica. His mother, Shelia Ward, filed an application to establish a temporary conservatorship for his estate in April.
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Singleton’s reported $35 million estate has caused conflict between his surviving family members.
In court documents, obtained by PEOPLE, Ward wrote Singleton was “hospitalized in a coma and is unable to provide for his personal needs.”
Ward added Singleton was involved in “several business projects and was prepared to sign a lucrative settlement agreement” at the end of the month, according to the documents.
The conservatorship would be established to prevent a “substantial financial loss.”
However, Singleton’s daughter, Cleopatra, wrote a letter opposing Ward’s request to be named temporary conservator.
“My grandmother’s intentions toward my father and his children are disturbing,” Cleopatra wrote in her declaration. “She cannot be [a] conservator of his person or his estate.”
Singleton made his film debut with his 1991 film Boyz n the Hood starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Ice Cube, Laurence Fishburne, Morris Chestnut and Angela Bassett.
Singleton was nominated for an Oscar for Best Director for Boyz n the Hood, becoming the first African American and the youngest person to have earned a nomination in that category.
In 1993, he directed Poetic Justice and followed it up with Higher Learning, Baby Boy and Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson.
He also directed 2 Fast 2 Furious and Four Brothers while serving as a producer on the 2005 film Hustle & Flow. Recently, he co-created the television crime drama Snowfall.
A statement from Singleton’s family obtained by PEOPLE on Monday read: “It is with heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved son, father and friend, John Daniel Singleton passed away today due to complications from a stroke he suffered last Wednesday.”
“John Singleton was a prolific, groundbreaking 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,” the statement continued.
“In his private life, John was a loving and supporting father, son, brother and friend who believed in higher education, black culture, old school music and the power of film,” it added. “John’s confidence in his place in Hollywood was only matched for his passion for the sea. John kayaked in Marina Del Rey every morning. His greatest joy, when not on set, was sailing on his boat, J’s Dream, up and down the Pacific Coast.”
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His family announced on Monday that they were taking the director off of life support 13 days after he suffered a stroke.
“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. 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 began.
Many Hollywood stars paid tribute to Singleton after his death.
“I met John as a recently graduated first-time writer/director embarking on his nascent film career. I will forever remember him fondly from our first meeting during the audition process,” Angela Bassett, who starred in Boyz n the Hood, told PEOPLE on Monday. “He exuded many things that day… awareness, openness and above all, enthusiasm!”
She added, “Over the years, he never lost or left any of that behind. He provided and possessed a clarity of vision that I appreciate from that day till this. He gave a voice and an opportunity to many. Count me in that grateful number.”
Meanwhile, Courtney B. Vance, with whom Singleton worked with on The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, also told PEOPLE in a statement that the opportunity to work with Singleton “became one of the defining moments in my career.”
“John was truly one of a kind and his voice and presence will be deeply missed. But the spirit of his extensive body of work – and the trails he has blazed for generations of filmmakers – will live on. Thank God for that,” Vance added.
