Scott Adams, the US cartoonist best known as the creator of Dilbert, has died aged 68.
Adams, who rose to prominence in the 1990s for his satirical portrayal of white-collar office life, died after receiving hospice care at his home in northern Callifornia after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
A “final message” was posted to his social media accounts, dated January 1, 2026, in which Adams wrote, “If you’re reading this, things did not go well for me. I have a few things to say before I go. My body fell before my brain. I am of sound mind as I write this January 1, 2026.”
In the message, Adams said he had chosen to “accept Jesus Christ as my lord and saviour” in the final stages of his life.
“Many of my Christian friends have asked me to find Jesus before I go,” he wrote.
“I’m not a believer but I have to admit the risk-reward calculation for doing so looks attractive. So here I go …
“I look forward to spending an eternity with him. The part about me not being a believer should be quickly resolved if I wake up in heaven. I won’t need any more convincing than that. And I hope I am still qualified for entry.”
Adams revealed in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer.
He said he had managed the illness privately for some time before making it public, adding that the cancer had progressed to Stage 4 and spread to his bones.
Speaking on his Real Coffee with Scott Adams podcast on January 1, he said, “I talked to my radiologist yesterday, and it’s all bad news = the odds of me recovering are essentially zero.
“I’ll give you any updates if that changes, but it won’t.
“So there’s no chance that 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,” he continued.
“However, you should prepare yourself that January will probably be a month of transition, one way or another.”
On Monday, Adams’ ex-wife and caregiver, Shelly, confirmed he was in hospice care at his northern California home and had only days left to live.
In his final message, Adams reflected on his marriage and family life following their divorce.
“For the first part of my life, I was focused on making myself a worthy husband and parent as a way to find meaning,” he wrote.
“That worked – but marriages don’t always last forever, and mine ended in a highly amicable way. I’m grateful for those years and the people I came to call my family.”
Adams skyrocketed into fame through Dilbert, which debuted in 1989 and followed the life of an engineer navigating a tightly controlled corporate workplace.
In later years, Adams expanded his public profile through business writing and political commentary.
His 2013 book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big became a bestseller and outlined his views on using systems rather than goals and building a broad “talent stack” instead of relying on traditional credentials.
In 2015, Adams began commenting regularly on US politics after watching the first Republican presidential primary debate.
His attention was drawn to Trump after the then-candidate responded to a moderator’s question about his treatment of women with the remark, “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”
A trained hypnotist, Adams later predicted that Donald Trump would win both the Republican nomination and the presidency.
US President Donald Trump paid tribute to Adams in a post on Truth Social, describing him as a “great influencer”.
“He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so,” Trump wrote.
First published in 1989, Dilbert centred on an engineer working in a heavily micromanaged office and was syndicated to roughly 2,000 newspapers globally at its peak.
In 2023, several major publications, including The Washington Post, dropped Dilbert after Adams posted a video in which he referred to Black people as a “hate group”.
The remarks followed a poll by conservative-leaning Rasmussen Reports that Adams said showed a slim majority of Black respondents agreed with the statement, “It’s okay to be white”.
“That’s a hate group and I don’t want anything to do with them,” Adams said in the video.
“Based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
Adams later defended the comments, saying he had been using hyperbole. He received support from right-wing billionaire Elon Musk, who criticised media outlets for discontinuing the comic.
“Even though I knew his death was coming, as he told us it would, I still can’t believe he has died,” Musk tweeted. “Rest in peace, good and great man, rest in peace.”
Images: Instagram
