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Cartoonist Pat Oliphant, Pulitzer Winner, Dies at 90

7/15/2026

Summary

Pat Oliphant Dies

Pat Oliphant, the cartoonist, died Monday at his Santa Fe home, age 90.
He was a syndicated editorial cartoonist whose work appeared in 500 newspapers in the 1980s.
Oliphant won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for cartooning, an honor he later dismissed.
His cartoons on the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal and Israel’s Gaza offensive prompted complaints from the Asian American Journalists Association.

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Pat Oliphant Tribute

The documentary *A Savage Art*, produced by Bill Banowsky, will screen for a week starting Friday in Santa Fe to honor cartoonist Oliphant’s life and cartooning.
Historian Hampton Sides said Oliphant’s work will be studied and places him among the pantheon of cartoonists, with only five rivals.
Oliphant also made bronze sculptures and oil paintings.
He is survived by three children, two stepchildren, a brother, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Summary

Pat Oliphant Controversy

Oliphant produced a Vietnam-era cartoon of the Statue of Liberty looking upward while ignoring Asian faces, captioned “Send me your tired and huddled masses… yearning to breathe free.”
He later drew FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover in fishnet stockings and Vice President Dan Quayle in a baby carriage, provoking debate over propriety.
A 1990 New York Times Magazine profile called him the most influential editorial cartoonist now working.

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Pat Oliphant Dies

Pat Oliphant, the cartoonist, died Monday at his Santa Fe home, age 90.
He was a syndicated editorial cartoonist whose work appeared in 500 newspapers in the 1980s.
Oliphant won the 1967 Pulitzer Prize for cartooning, an honor he later dismissed.
His cartoons on the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal and Israel’s Gaza offensive prompted complaints from the Asian American Journalists Association.

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