No. 58: PETER ROBBINS / It's a Reunion, Charlie Brown: The original voice of the beloved Peanuts character talked to me about the suicide (or possible murder) of Christopher Shea, the voice of Linus.

Remember Linus walking out on the stage to explain the meaning of Christmas to the other Peanuts characters? Now imagine him high AF, strung out, and being crowd-surfed around at a Tom Petty concert

Left to right, Peter Robbins (1956-2022) and Christopher Shea (1958-2010), the original voices of Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt in the 1960s Peanuts specials. This screen grab features a photo of their getting together just weeks before Christopher’s death.

Preface: Though I originally published this post for paid subscribers, I’m making it story available to all readers because of the gravity of issues it raises about mental health and suicide. I’ve added a few notes to the original text and audio, along with screen grabs from Peter’s Facebook feed.

My friend Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts specials back in the 60s, died on this day last year. I wrote about Peter a couple of times recently and the stories can be found in my Substack archive:

In The Dirty Ghostwriter I explain how I met Peter and tried to help him piece together a manuscript of a memoir (as yet, unpublished). With that essay I include an audio clip of a voicemail Peter left me …