Paul Reubens, known best by his character name Pee-wee Herman, died Sunday after a private six-year battle with cancer. He was 70.
“Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” Reubens wrote on an Instagram message posted today. “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.”
The post’s caption, written by his estate, reads, “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. Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit. 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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Born Paul Rubenfeld in Peekskill, New York, Reubens, whose iconic character both parodied and celebrated children’s TV hosts of the 1950s and would become a cherished figure among kids who loved his gentle but anarchic humor and the adults who appreciated the wit behind it, was an improv comedian and actor who got his big break in Los Angeles as part of The Groundlings in the 1970s. He remained with the troupe for six years, building a friendship and a collaboration with fellow Groundling Phil Hartman.
In 1980, Reubens had a small part as a waiter in The Blues Brothers, all the while developing the character that would shoot the actor to international fame in the 1980s.
By 1982, Reubens was spotlighting the fully-formed character – dressed in a too-small gray suit, white shirt and red bow-tie, his short hair slick with what an earlier era might have called greasy kid stuff – in a live act called The Pee-wee Herman Show, a routine already so popular that HBO handed Reubens his own special built around the stage show.
Rarely seen in public out of character, Reubens meshed so well with the child-like (but occasionally naughty) Pee-wee that the actor and character developed both a small but devoted following that quickly expanded to the mainstream. In 1985, he starred in Tim Burton’s breakthrough hit film Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985). Three years later Reubens starred in the sequel Big Top Pee-wee.
Parody crossed over into reality with Pee-wee’s Playhouse, the 1986-90 Saturday morning children’s program on CBS. With that weekly series, Reubens eliminated the edgier aspects of the earlier live show, becoming a kids’ show favorite complete with catchphrases (“I meant to do that”) and shelves-full of merchandise, from dolls, playsets and Halloween costumes, to name a few.
The series would also feature Reubens’ old friend and fellow Groundling Hartman (as the character Captain Carl during the first season), Laurence Fishburne, Lynne Marie Stewart, and S. Epatha Merkerson.
Reubens’ career came to an abrupt, and years-long, halt in July of 1991 when he was arrested in a Sarasota, Florida, adult theater and charged with indecent exposure. The incident made international headlines, considerable ridicule and a quick end to the reams of merchandise on toy store shelves. CBS, which had already canceled the Saturday show pre-scandal, ended all reruns of the program.
Pleading no contest to the charge, Reubens was sentenced to community service, for which he produced two antidrug public-service announcements.
Reubens was widely defended by many in Hollywood, but he largely avoided public appearances during the time, finally emerging, in character, at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, delivering the instant-classic opening line, “Heard any good jokes lately?”
He’d sit out most of the 1990s, re-emerging in the 1999 feature film Mystery Men and, in 2001, Blow. By this time, Reubens typically left the Pee-wee character behind.
Other post-scandal credits include Reno 911! (2006), a hilarious turn on 30 Rock (2007), Pushing Daisies (2007), Life During Wartime (2009), The Blacklist (2014–2015), Accidental Love (2015) and Mosaic (2018).
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