American 1922-2000 Charles Monroe Schulz, nicknamed Sparky, was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Peanuts (which featured the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, among others). Devoted to his beloved characters, Schulz continued writing and drawing Peanuts in 1981, after he underwent quintuple bypass surgery, and he wrote for years with a hand tremor. He was finally forced to stop working in November 1999 after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. His last daily comic strip ran in early January 2000. Charles Schulz died at home at age 77.