A failed SNL audition built one of the most committed character acts in entertainment, and a scandal in a Florida movie theater almost destroyed it.
At a glance
- Known for
- Creator and performer of Pee-wee Herman across stage, film, and TV
- Before fame
- Grew up in Sarasota next to Ringling Brothers circus families
- Off-screen
- Kept a six-year cancer battle completely private until his death
Rise to Fame
Losing a Saturday Night Live spot to Gilbert Gottfried in 1980 turned out to be the best rejection of his career. Reubens was so bitter about it that he borrowed money and built his own stage show around Pee-wee Herman, a character he'd improvised at the Groundlings two years earlier. The show sold out five months at The Roxy, and HBO filmed it as a special.
Reubens found Burton after seeing Frankenweenie at a party. Pee-wee's Big Adventure was Burton's debut, a $7 million movie that grossed over $40 million, and alongside Beetlejuice it handed Burton the Batman gig. For a full decade, Reubens gave every public appearance and interview exclusively in character. He wasn't playing Pee-wee. He was Pee-wee, and CBS bankrolled that commitment at $325,000 per episode.
In the Spotlight
An arrest for indecent exposure at a Florida adult theater in 1991 detonated his career overnight. CBS pulled Pee-wee's Playhouse reruns. Toys-R-Us stripped shelves. His punishment was a $50 fine. The public punishment was losing everything he'd built.
Six weeks later, he walked onstage at the MTV VMAs and asked, "Heard any good jokes lately?" The LA Times called it the only spontaneous ovation of the entire show. He rebuilt quietly, earning an Emmy nomination for Murphy Brown, stealing scenes in Blow, and guest-starring on 30 Rock as an inbred prince. A Broadway revival and a 2016 Netflix film proved the character still worked, but Reubens never got the empire back.
Side Notes
A mock wedding in 1989, presided over by Imelda Marcos at Doris Duke's Hawaiian mansion, with Duke's adopted daughter as the bride. That's the kind of sentence that only makes sense if you're Paul Reubens.
His father was a WWII pilot who became one of five founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force. His CalArts classmates included Katey Sagal and David Hasselhoff. His co-writer Phil Hartman ended up on SNL partly because Reubens brought him to New York and introduced him to Lorne Michaels, a favor for the show that had rejected Reubens himself. Natasha Lyonne made her TV debut on Pee-wee's Playhouse at age six. After his death, she wrote: "Love you so much, Paul. Thank you for my career."
Final Chapter
His posthumous Instagram apologized for keeping a six-year cancer fight private. Tim Burton wrote that his own career "would not have happened" without Reubens' early support. A memorial at the Skirball Cultural Center drew 350 people, including Conan O'Brien and Maya Rudolph. The 2025 documentary Pee-wee as Himself premiered at Sundance and won three Primetime Emmys.