Living Singles’ cast is all beloved by the shows adoring audience. While they have not all enjoyed the monstrous success of their lead actress Queen Latifah, they continue to score interviews and discussions with outlets asking them about the show and their lives since. John Henton has had some crazy things happen to him since the show wrapped, and he recently opened up about them.
John Henton is a native of Cleveland, OH. He got into standup comedy first before venturing off into acting. He won the Johny Walker comedy search in 1991, and it helped jump-start his career. He was off to a promising start with co-signs from Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon, and Tony Bennett. He scored a standup special at the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem before landing the role of Overton Wakefield Jones on Living Single. He also played Milsap Morris on the UPN series The Hughleys. This was followed by guest appearances on other sitcoms, One on One, The Parkers, For Your Love, Hannah Montana, and Love That Girl!
These days, Henton enjoys a respectable career in standup while telling his harrowing life story. Henton’s life was forever changed when he got into a car accident in September of 2000. He was on his way home from a UPN party in Los Angeles when the incident happened. Reports from 2000 read, “Henton was driving on the 101 Freeway south of Mulholland Drive, ‘traveling at a high rate of speed’ at around 12:55 a.m. when he rear-ended another car, smashed through a chain-link fence and hit a concrete wall on Cahuenga Blvd.”
While his publicist at the time was committed to downplaying his injuries, the truth was that Henson almost lost his life. “His condition is good – and nothing from the accident will affect John or his career,” said Henton’s publicist, Wendy Zocks, at the time. Years later, the truth came out. Henton broke nine teeth, destroyed his left eye socket, shattered both legs, ripped his stomach, and deformed his face in the crash. Reports over the years confirmed that “the damage to his appearance was so terrible that surgeons couldn’t recognize him.”
Never saw the show. But I heard good things… https://t.co/r2mjFxXtNb
— John Henton (@TheJohnHenton) December 20, 2022
Henton later confirmed that he was intoxicated and reportedly so drunk that people had to inform him about his actions that evening. Luckily his recovery did not take long. He was back to film The Hughleys six weeks later and back on a standup tour in eight weeks. In recent years, Henton revealed the real depth of how bad his accident was. The actor spent two days in a coma.
His parents did not know if he was dead or alive on their flight to Los Angeles. Henton confirms that he definitely had a “habit,” and the “habit drove home that evening” and not him. It took four hours for paramedics to pull him from the vehicle he was in. Henton’s eye had popped out of the socket, and he sustained permanent damage, which resulted in blindness.
