Scott Adams, the cartoonist whose Dilbert became a pop culture sensation in the 1990s, has died, according to a statement from his ex-wife, Shelly Miles. Adams, who alienated much of his audience with a hard turn into right-wing politics in more recent years, was 68 years old.
Adams passed away after a battle with prostate cancer, which he announced in May 2025. In a recent interview, the cartoonist said that he had recently seen his radiologist and that it was “all bad news,” and overnight reports emerged that Adams was very close to death.
Dilbert ran from 1989 until 2023, when a racist tirade by Adams finally led his distributor, Andrews McMeel Syndication, to drop him. Dilbert continued on as a webcomic, but with a greatly reduced reach, but in recent months, most of the attention on Adams has come when he spoke publicly about his cancer journey on his podcast.
Dilbert originally grew out of doodles Adams would make during his last professional job, where he supposedly ran a contest in the office to see which of his co-workers could name the character who would become Dilbert. It wouldn’t be the last time he crowdsourced some of his work, telling People magazine in 1995 that he often based strips on ideas submitted from fans.
“Most of the ideas I use are from e-mail,” the magazine quoted him as saying. “It’s like tapping into this great collective consciousness. The office and technology themes were the most popular. I shifted the emphasis [from home life], and the strip’s popularity zoomed.”
Adams and his creation became famous for skewering corporate culture, making mostly sitcom-style jokes about the frustrations of working in an American office. Once Dilbert was embraced by that same corporate culture, Adams wrote a number of books that blended his views on business with Dilbert-style humor. Eventually, he would branch out with books on politics and some fiction work. Dilbert was adapted into an animated series on UPN for two seasons beginning in 1999, with stars like Chris Elliot, Daniel Stern, and Jason Alexander playing roles.
In the 2010s, Adams’s politics took center stage. On social media and cable news, he emerged as a voice for the far right, supporting the politics of Donald Trump and regularly antagonizing those who disagreed with him on Twitter.
Adams was married to Miles from 2006 until 2014, but seemingly remained in contact. He developed a strong relationship with her children, so much that when pain from his cancer treatments was too great to bear, he considered physician assisted suicide through the California End of Life Option Act, but held off until after his stepdaughter’s wedding. Ultimately, he chose not to go through with the assisted suicide after discovering a therapy that reduced the pain significantly.
Back in November, Adams leveraged his political clout to get in touch with U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in hopes of getting access to an experimental cancer drug. After revealing his cancer diagnosis to the world, Adams had a rare break with Trump, criticizing those on the right who celebrated Joe Biden’s diagnosis.
“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion for the ex-president and his family because they’re going through an especially tough time,” Adams said at the time. “It’s a terrible disease.”
Born in the Catskills in 1957, Adams had a supportive mother who encouraged him in his cartooning even after years of rejection from others.
“She said I could be president,” Adams told People. “I wanted to be Charles Schulz.”
