Paul Reubens, Actor Who Portrayed Pee-wee Herman, Dead at 70
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Paul Reubens, the actor who portrayed beloved character Pee-wee Herman that amused kids and adults of multiple generations, died on Sunday night at the age of 70. The cause of death was an unspecified cancer.
“Last night, we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer, and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy, and belief in the importance of kindness,” a post on the actor’s official Facebook and Instagram accounts read.
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“Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit,” the statement continued. “A gifted and prolific talent, he will forever live in the comedy pantheon and in our hearts as a treasured friend and man of remarkable character and generosity of spirit.”
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“Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” Reubens wrote. “I have always felt a huge amount of love and respect from my friends, fans, and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you.”
Reubens first premiered Pee-wee Herman — a character he developed — as part of famed improv group the Groundlings in 1977, before developing the character further in 1982 with The Pee-wee Herman Show. The show was a success and spawned an HBO special and several movies, including 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (marking Tim Burton’s feature-film directorial debut) and 1988’s Big Top Pee-wee.
Reubens went on to play the iconic role in Pee-wee’s Playhouse — which he created, co-wrote and co-directed. The series, which ran for five years, highlighted Reubens’ sense of whimsy and playfulness; it was ostensibly geared toward children but beloved by adults for his off-kilter humor and bizarre characters. The show earned 22 Emmys, with Reubens nominated for 14 and winning twice.
Reubens co-wrote the script for Big Adventure with Michael Varhol and Phil Hartman. Hartman later achieved his own fame on Saturday Night Live. The two actors had met while members of the Groundlings, and their bond was strong enough that Hartman pulled double duty between SNL and Pee-wee’s Playhouse during the latter’s first season, portraying the character Captain Carl.
He reprised the role and his stage performance with a revival of The Pee-wee Herman Show in Los Angeles in 2010 before it went on to Broadway. HBO produced a special of the Broadway version, which earned him another Emmy nomination.
Reubens returned to the big screen with his third and final film as the titular character in 2015 with Pee-wee‘s Big Holiday. Teaming up with Judd Apatow, Reubens co-wrote it alongside Paul Rust.
He became famous for playing an adult with a childlike spirit, and his love for acting began at a young age. He first appeared onstage in the sixth grade, where he played Nick Burns in A Thousand Clowns at the Players Theatre in New York. He returned to the Players in junior high, where he appeared in The Riot Act, Camelot, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
The acting bug continued in high school, where he was president of the drama club and starred in numerous roles. He went on to attend Boston University for a year as a theater major before moving to L.A. to enroll in the acting program at California Institute of the Arts.
It was in Los Angeles where he developed Pee-wee Herman. Following college, he joined the Groundlings, where he debuted the character at its theater in 1981 for five months.
By the mid- to late-Eighties, Reubens had inspired something like Pee-wee Mania in the United States thanks to the success of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Pee-wee’s Playhouse. What had begun as a quirky counterculture bit had become mainstream big business. Merchandise included action figures, customizable Playhouses, “Chairy” dolls, and trading cards. Reubens also seemed ubiquitous, appearing in Bryan Adams music videos, Sesame Street, the sitcom 227, and even Michael Jackson’s 1988 movie Moonwalker. He was also a frequent talk-show guest on late-night shows hosted by David Letterman, Joan Rivers, and Arsenio Hall. In 1988, “Pee-wee Herman” got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
While his character proved to resonate with those young and old as he took Pee-wee from the stage to television and film, his career came to a halt in 1991. On July 26 — at the height of his popularity — Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure at a Sarasota, Florida, adult theater. According to local police, after he was spotted masturbating in the theater, Reubens attempted to convince the police officer not to arrest him by offering to perform as Pee-wee at a children’s benefit for the department.
Following the arrest, Toys “R” Us quickly removed Pee-wee Herman dolls from shelves, and Disney canceled plans to use Reubens’ voice for an upcoming theme-park attractions. Reubens’ arrest became fodder for countless late-night-standup-host routines and endless moralizing editorials in newspapers. Though Pee-wee’s Playhouse had already ended productions, CBS also canceled plans to air remaining reruns of the show. The nature of the arrest, combined with the release of a mugshot that undermined Reubens’ squeaky-clean image, threatened to put his entire career in jeopardy.
Shortly after the backlash, however, many celebrities such as longtime friends Annette Funicello and Cyndi Lauper leapt to Reubens’ defense, with Lauper referring to the crime as a “victimless occurrence.” Protesters also showed up to rally in Reubens’ defense outside of CBS Studios, and polls appeared to show that public opinion aligned with him due to the nature of the offense. (Reubens eventually pleaded no contest to the charges and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service.)
From there, Reubens briefly vanished from the public eye, though he did make a self-deprecating appearance as Pee-wee at the MTV Music Video Awards a few months after his arrest (“Heard any good jokes lately?” he cracked to the audience to uproarious laughter and applause). In the mid-1990s, he made a brief comeback with appearances out of character in films like Matilda and Mystery Men, most of which were small roles credited to Paul Reubens. Though he received critical acclaim in the 1999 Johnny Depp movie Blow, he did not return to appearing as the character he made famous until his stage show in 2009.
His comeback included the release of Pee-wee’s Playhouse on Blu-Ray in 2014. Of the popularity of the series, he told Rolling Stone that it eschewed being didactic, making his character relatable and timeless.
“It was a show that assumed its viewers were very young but very smart. It never seemed like a kids’ show if you actually were a kid. Does that make sense?” Reubens said. “We weren’t under the auspices of something like the Children’s Television Workshop, where a certain part of the content has to be educational, I’m guessing. We tried to disguise anything that might seem overtly like a lesson or a lecture, but we still got some important points across. It’s tough to make a kids’ show; it’s even tougher to make a kids’ show that real kids like. And I take great pride in the fact that that’s what we did.”
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