Paul Reubens was a beloved member of the family of Disney performers. While best known as Pee-Wee Herman, his voice was well-known to Disney fans as Rex from Star Tours, DJ Rex in Oga’s Cantina, Max in Flight of the Navigator, Lock in Nightmare Before Christmas, and Pavel in TRON: Uprising.
Born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952 in Peekskill, NY, he grew up in Sarasota, Florida, near where Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus would winter. He counted the circus as one of his greatest influences, culminating in his film Big Top Pee-Wee. He had secretly been fighting cancer for six years before dying at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at the age of 70.
Starting out as many Disney legends did, he attended the California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts), then a few years later joined The Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles. There he befriended another comedian, Phil Hartman. Hartman went on to play Captain Carl on the Pee-Wee Herman Show on stage and on HBO.
While in the Groundlings, Reubens developed Pee-Wee, first as a failed comedian who doesn’t know that his jokes aren’t funny, that grew into the Pee-Wee the world knows and loves. Groundlings leader Gary Austin, gave him his famous suit, and someone unknown handed him a little red bow tie that became his trademark.
He tried out for Saturday Night Live but lost out to Gilbert Godfried. Disappointed, he raised the money to create his own show at the Roxy in Hollywood. Hartman and John Paragon, who played Jambi the Genie on the show, helped him put together the script. The show sold out for five months and was such a huge hit that HBO aired it as part of their On Location series. There were matinees for kids and midnight shows for adults, and people fell in love with Pee-Wee. He was offered a movie and immediately accepted.
Pee-Wee appeared in Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie and Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams as Hamburger Dude, but bigger things were on the horizon: his own feature film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The Pee-Wee Herman Show toured the US to great success, culminating in a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall. He separated his real and Pee-Wee personas, only appearing on shows like David Letterman as Pee-Wee.
Warner Brothers hired him to write the script, which was originally going to be a remake of Reubens’ favorite movie, Disney’s Pollyanna. Reubens noticed that everybody on the Warner Brothers lot rode a bicycle, so he brought in Phil Hartman and they changed the script to be about Pee-Wee searching for his stolen bicycle.
After seeing Frankenweenie and Vincent, Reubens knew he wanted Tim Burton to direct. Amazingly, Burton was available. The film cost $7 million to make and raked in $40.9 million. It was a hit then and has remained a popular cult film.
CBS approached him about doing a Pee-Wee cartoon. Reubens demurred but suggested a live-action show, and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse was born.
The show ran from 1986-1991 and included stars like Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis. Pee-Wee’s Playhouse never talked down to kids, so it was popular with children and adults alike.
Meanwhile, he was working on the sequel to Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Big Top Pee-Wee. He had different writers and director on the second film, and it wasn’t as big a hit as the first one.
In 1986, he voiced Max the drone ship in the Disney movie Flight of the Navigator, and in 1987 he voiced Rex, the Star Tours pilot for Disney Parks. In later years he would return to voice DJ Rex for Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge for Disney.
After his unfortunate arrest for lewd conduct in 1991, Disney removed a film from their studio tour where Pee-Wee explained how voiceovers work and Toys R Us removed his toys from their stores. He pleaded no contest and was assigned 75 hours of community service, in which he produced two anti-drug public service films.
The support for Reubens was overwhelming, with people from Cyndi Lauper (who sang the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse theme song) to Annette Funicello and many others defending him. Teenagers led a picket of both CBS offices in Los Angeles and New York to protest against the cancellation of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.
In 1991 he appeared as Pee-Wee on the MTV Video Music Awards, where he received a standing ovation. In 1992 he appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in a tribute to Minnie Pearl.
Pee-Wee took a rest after that, with Reubens playing small roles in films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batman Returns (he played Penguin’s father). In 1993, he voiced Lock in Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas.
He appeared on film in Matilda and Dunston Checks In in 1996. From 1995-1997 he played a recurring character on Murphy Brown and received his only non-Pee-Wee Emmy nomination for it. He was in Mystery Men, South of Heaven, West of Hell and You Don’t Know Jack before blowing people away with his performance in the movie Blow.
Reubens appeared in Reno:911 and Reno:911 The Movie, a Raconteurs music video, 30 Rock, Dirt and David Arquette’s film The Tripper. He did voice work for Re-Animator, Chowder, and the Tim and Eric shows. He appeared several times in the show Pushing Daisies, and voiced Bat-Mite in Batman:The Brave and The Bold.
In 2009, He felt it was time for Pee-Wee Herman to make his return and did The Pee-Wee Herman Show live. Reubens appeared on late night talk shows as Pee-Wee and the show was a hit, moving to New York after a fantastic run in Los Angeles and selling over $3 million in tickets there. HBO recorded the show and it aired to great success.
From 2012-2013 Reubens voiced the dark character Pavel on Disney XD’s Tron:Uprising. I got to interview him when the show started and he said that he wanted the character to feel left out and wanting more than what the people around him could give. He was a very nice man.
In 2010, Reubens brought Pee-Wee’s Playhouse back for a Funny or Die video about the then-new iPad. He had several Pee-Wee films in mind, scripts ready to shoot, but nothing happened until Judd Apatow was interested in doing a film for Netflix, Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday. The film was a hit.
Pee-Wee opened a Twitter and Facebook account as well as his own website, Pee-Wee.com. He featured stories as somber as Memorial Day remembrances to wacky things like cups that make you look like you have a snout, and always remembered Large Marge on her birthday.
One of Paul Reubens’ last projects was the movie Mosaic, with Sharon Stone. He posted some photos on his blog of his various costumes:
Reubens kept his six-year-long battle with cancer a secret. Most of his friends didn’t know, as he always liked to keep it positive. He died at Cedars-Sinai Hospital. I hope there will be some kind of public farewell.
Dick Van Dyke and his wife Arlene were good friends with Paul Reubens and posted this tribute to him on Facebook:
God bless all clowns.
Who star in the world with laughter,
Who ring the rafters with flying jest,
Who make the world spin merry on its way.
God bless all clowns.
So poor the world would be,
Lacking their piquant touch, hilarity,
The belly laughs, the ringing lovely.
God bless all clowns.
Give them a long good life,
Make bright their way—they’re a race apart!
Alchemists most, who turn their hearts’ pain,
Into a dazzling jest to lift the heart.
God bless all clowns.
Farewell to the great Paul Reubens; the world has lost a unique talent, but his humor will live on.