Paul Reubens Dies: The Death of Pee-Wee Herman

August 27, 1952 – July 30, 2023

PAUL REUBENS

1952-2023

Paul Reubens was born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952 in Peekskill NY to a homemaker mother Judy, and WW2 veteran pilot father, Milton. His parents owned a Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Oneonta, NY. In the basement of their house, Milton built a stage for his son Paul and a boat-themed playhouse for his daughter Abby. The family grew to include a second son Luke. In 1960, the Rubenfelds relocated to Sarasota Florida. The family found an unconventional home on Sarasota Bay that had been built as a test house by the Navy. Japanese in style, it had a swimming pool in the center and overhead garage doors that opened the house to the outdoors. Judy and Milton owned and operated a lighting store, The Lamplighter Shop, for fifteen years. Judy worked in the store when her schedule as a full-time mom permitted. She was a volunteer school nurse at her children’s elementary school and was active in their extracurricular activities through high school.

After graduating from Sarasota High School in 1970, Paul attended Boston University for one year before deciding to seek his fortune as “Paul Reubens” in Hollywood. Paul grew up with parents who loved to laugh and he later found his love of improv theater at The Groundlings in Los Angeles.

“I think my entire career path was determined for me when I was 6 years old, watching reruns of ‘I Love Lucy’ on television and thinking about making people laugh” – Paul Reubens

He and his friend and stage-mate John Paragon made several appearance together on The Gong Show. Before Pee Wee was fully formed, the character was a lot edgier, as demonstrated in his appearances in The Blue Brothers (1980) and in Cheech & Chong films.

Paul did not win his audition to join the lackluster 1980 cast of Saturday Night Live (Gilbert Gottfreid got the slot) and he was discouraged – but ultimately fueled to create his own showcase. Paul borrowed a few thousand dollars from his parents and launched a stage show featuring his character Pee-wee Herman in a children’s TV show sendup of Howdy Doody & Pinky Lee. His friends from the Groundlings, including Paragon, were given Puppetland citizen roles.

The Pee-wee Herman Show at the Roxy Theater L.A. was a hit and immortalized with a taping for HBO. It laid out the characters and kookiness shown later in the mainstream Saturday show.

Pee-wee continued to bring his props and childish comedy onto early 1980s Late Night with David Letterman and he became a fan favorite. Tim Burton made his film directorial debut with Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985).

Though he had no prior experience as a feature-film director, the 25-year-old Burton quickly bonded with Reubens age 33, who was impressed by his Frankenweenie short. Pee-Wes’s Big Adventure became a well-loved classic, it gave us among other things: Truck stop dinosaurs, LARGE MARGE, Alamo basement jokes, Tequila biker bar dancing, and Simone’s big but. Reubens and Burton would work together two more times.

The year of the film premiere, Paul bought his beloved Los Feliz home in the Oaks neighborhood for $415,000. The one-story 1957 ranch home with three-bedrooms and 2.5-bath was 2,921 square feet on a 1.4-acre lot with 360-degree views of canyons and the city, including Griffith Park Observatory and Hollywood sign.

After 4 decades of his residency, which included his cats in their own “catio” – the home was put on the market in 2024 for $4,995,000.

We don’t swim in your toilet so don’t Pee-wee in our pool.

Paul was invited to host SNL – in character.

Big Top Pee-wee (1988) followed at cinemas to mixed reviews and Paul stayed focused on TV production.

Pee-wee’s Playhouse premiered on Saturday morning September 13, 1986 and ran for 5 seasons until 1990. It won six Emmys and a legion of fans. It also spawned the Christmas special which was absolutely the best hour of television in history, introducing the world to the “Heavenly intonations of The Del Rubio Triplets”.

“Amazingly, by way of a mutual friend of his son Christian, I learned that even Marlon Brando thought Pee-wee was a real person! He couldn’t believe I was an actor who had created that persona-which is maybe the highest benediction.” – Paul Reubens

Then… this happened: On July 26, 1991, Paul was busted doing the five-knuckle-shuffle in an adult movie theater (now a pizza joint called, yes, The Mellow Mushroom) in his home town. This mugshot alone nearly derailed Paul’s Pee-wee career. Click the link to the YouTube video for the entire story and the see the location.

The arrest made front page and lead stories in every paper and news program. The public couldn’t get enough details, even for such a misdemeanor. The jokes flew.

1. Q: Did you hear about the new Pee-wee Herman doll? A: It pulls its own string.

2. I understand that the Pee-Wee line of clothing is discounted now in the stores: In fact Pee-Wee’s pants are half off.

3. Officials in the Pee-Wee Herman case have decided to drop charges. They state that the evidence is unlikely to stand up in court.

Paul decided to confront the scandal head-on. heh. His surprise entrance at the 1991 MTV Movie Awards stunned audience members. His first remark won everyone over.

“Heard any good jokes lately?”

– Paul as Pee-wee at 1991 MTV Movie awards

Paul Reubens continued to act in numerous shows such as Murphy Brown, 30 Rock (as a severely inbred Bavarian royal), The Blacklist, Pushing Daisies, and Portlandia.

Pee-wee Herman was resurrected in 2010 with a new full-scale stage show incorporating most of the original Roxy Theater script along with elements and characters from the Saturday morning show.

The Pee-wee Herman Show LIVE! (with the Cowboy Curtis character replacing Captain Carl), was performed in Los Angeles to sold-out audiences at the Nokia Theater and on Broadway. It was also filmed and released on HBO. It was mostly fun, although part of the big draw for me was a Q & A that was to happen after the show. It was heavily implied that it would be personal and intimate, like we might possibly get to meet him. Instead the questions (no doubt pre-printed) were pulled out “randomly.” It was lackluster, scripted and brief. But it was still a great night.

Pee-wee Herman’s full-length feature film swansong was Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (2016) for Netflix. Since the cast had aged so much since Pee-wee’s last film appearance, they spent a fortune on special effect filters to blur the wrinkles. Sometimes I wondered if it was completely animated. The film’s homoerotic camp elements were a fun nod to some of Paul Reuben’s earlier jokes, like the shirtless hunks building an extension onto the Playhouse using fruitcake bricks, and of course the glory hole scene in Pee-wee’s Christmas Special.

Paul Reubens appeared a couple times on Instagram Live in early 2020s to tease his dear friend and neighbor Sid Krofft, a puppeteer TV pioneer and children’s show legend. Paul loved to tease his 90-year-old buddy Sid on his repeating his career stories. After his death, friends came forward saying how Paul always remembered their birthdays and that he enjoyed sending multiple texts in an over-the-top barrage of memes and messages.

Paul’s father died 2004 at 84 and his obituary described him as never taking “no” for an answer and having lived his life with great gusto and swagger. Paul’s mother died in 2019 at age 90 and her obituary revealed a colorful lady who nurtured and launched three successful children.

From her obituary:

Judy’s eldest son Paul is the actor also known as Pee-wee Herman. Abby is a prominent civil rights attorney. Luke is a successful business owner. When their children were grown, Judy and Milton moved to the southernmost tip of Turtle Beach on Siesta Key. She loved to walk the beach and collect shells. She became an avid birdwatcher. She loved to play bridge and do crossword puzzles. She was wickedly funny and sarcastic, as well as drastically impatient. She famously had a Doberman named Carlos who carried her purse.

After the 2021 death of John “Jambi the genie” Paragon, Paul and Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson made sure their friend had a fabulous urn displayed in his Hollywood Forever cemetery niche. They started a GoFundMe page to raise the funds to buy Paragon a niche, and it wasn’t cheap. Tens of thousands of dollars were donated by loving fans. When the cash was collected and the grave paid for, an “intimate” unveiling was held on November 14, 2022. Financial contributors were not invited.

After a long illness which was kept very quiet, Paul Reubens died at age 70 on Sunday July 30, 2023 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after years of treatment for two types of cancer: acute myelogenous leukemia (cancer of the blood and bone marrow), and metastatic lung cancer.

His posthumous message in the press and on Instagram to his beloved fans was short and sweet:

“Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years. 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.”

Paul was cremated and his ashes were interred at Hollywood Forever cemetery with his gravestone unveiled during an annual cemetery screening of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure on Saturday September 14, 2024. It featured the image of his Pee-wee bow tie.