Published Feb 12, 2022

Remembering Charlie Brown Cartoonist Charles Schulz, Who Died From Colon Cancer at 77

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The Legacy of Charlie Brown artist, Charles Schulz

On February 12, 2000, cartoonist Charles Schulz passed away from colon cancer.
The 77-year-old artist retired just months before he passed away after decades of producing one of the most beloved comics of all time, Peanuts.
Current guidelines say that people between the ages of 45 and 75 who have average colon cancer risk should be screened for the disease every ten years.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who is unfamiliar with Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang. Artist Charles Schulz, who passed away 22 years ago today from complications related to colon cancer, may just be the most famous cartoonist to ever live. Schulz’s love for cartoons and creating began shortly after he was born in Minnesota in 1922. He took his first cartooning course with the Federal School of Applied Cartooning (now Art Instruction Schools) as a senior in high school at the encouragement of his mother, who also tragically died of cancer when Schulz was a young man.

Cartoonist Charles Schultz surrounded by rubber doll replicas of the characters in his ‘Peanuts’ comic strip in 1966 (Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

The journey to creating what would eventually become Peanuts began in 1945, when Schultz began selling one-panel cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post and producing a weekly panel comic, Li’l Folks, in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, according to The Schulz Museum. These early cartoons contained drawings of children with large heads who seemed to speak and interact with wisdom well beyond their years — which may sound familiar to Peanuts fans. The first Peanuts strip appeared in October 1950, according to Museum.

At the time that Schulz retired in December 1999, just months before he passed from cancer, the Peanuts comic strip had been syndicated in more than 2,600 newspapers all over the world. He had book collections published in more than 25 languages and had received numerous accolades, from an Emmy Award to a NASA spacecraft named after his characters.

Colon Cancer – What to Know

Schulz passed away at age 77 from the disease, but it does often affect much younger individuals. This is why current guidelines suggest adults begin screening for the disease much earlier — at age 45.

Colon cancer begins as a a polyp, or small growth, in the colon. A polyp will often present no symptoms, but it can grow into cancer. Routine colonoscopes screen for polyps and they can be removed before they have a chance to grow into cancer when they are detected early enough.

In a previous conversation with SurvivorNet, colorectal cancer surgeon Dr. Heather Yeo stressed that it’s important for everyone to get screened for colon cancer, regardless of family history. If you have a higher risk of the disease, screening should begin even earlier, Dr. Yeo said.

Colon cancer experts explain screening guidelines.

“You should be screened for colon cancer, even if you have no family history,” she explained. “Once you have your initial screening colonoscopy, if there are no polyps and you have no high-risk factors, usually [screening] once every 10 years is fine. Colon cancer is a slowly-progressing disease.

“If you have any family history of colon cancer,” she added, “you should be screened about 10 years before your family member had colon cancer. So, if you have a family member that was 53, you should be screened at 43.”

People who are in good health with a life expectancy of more than 10 years should continue regular colonoscopies through age 75. People older than 75 can make a decision with their doctors about whether to continue screening.

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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