Paul Reubens, Sarasota High grad who became an icon as Pee-wee Herman, dies at 70

Through talent, innovation, a child-like spirit and some unwanted notoriety, Paul Reubens grew up to become one of Sarasota’s most famous exports as the popular character Pee-wee Herman.

With his gray suit, red bow tie, and adenoidal voice, Pee-wee was a man-child who teased and taunted and just wanted to have fun, with both children and adults in movies and his long-running TV series. He kept Pee-wee in the public eye for more than 30 years before Reubens died on Sunday at age 70, according to an Instagram post by his family.

He died in Los Angeles after privately fighting cancer for years.

“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,” the family posted. “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.”

In a statement posted on Instagram, Reubens apologized for “not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” according to the Associated Press. “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 was born in Peekskill, N.Y., in 1952 to Milton and Judy Rubenfeld, who moved the family to Sarasota where they owned the Lamplighter Shop. Reubens eventually became president of the National Thespian Society at Sarasota High School. He also found his way to numerous stage performances at what was then the Players of Sarasota, and he was an apprentice actor at Asolo Repertory Theatre.

Barbara Redmond, a longtime member of the Asolo Rep acting company who later became a professor at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, recalled him as a “very sweet, very funny and talented man.” She said she was among a small few who knew of his cancer diagnosis. “I was sworn to secrecy.” She didnt’t even tell her husband, director Eb Thomas.

Vic Meyrich, Asolo Rep’s production manager, described him as funny and “a great friend. We used to hang out with him and this eclectic group of Sarasota High School kids. They were kind of the LGBTQ group of their era. They were all artists, straight, gay, trans. He was so creative.”

Meyrich said Reubens maintained contact with several people from that period in his life, exchanging Christmas cards and visiting when he would be in town to see his parents.

On one of those visits in 2011, he spent about three hours talking to some of the current conservatory students.

“Talk about my life being made,” said Summer Wallace, co-founder of the Urbanite Theatre who was part of that special class. “I was a huge Pee-wee fan and imagine me when I opened the door to the acting classroom and there was Paul Reubens sitting in the center of the classroom. I started crying instantaneously.”

She said Reubens “gave us advice about the business. He was really speaking about how hard it is to get your foot in the door. People were asking about not having enough stuff on their resumes and trying to get seen and he said, ‘Just lie. Embellish. Get your butt in the room, do an amazing job, be incredible at your audition and it’s OK. Do what you can do, take risks. Don’t be afraid to make big choices.' He taught me so much.”

He first developed Pee-wee while working with the improvisational troupe The Groundlings. Pee-wee was initially portrayed as an inept comic, but he developed over time into a beloved character who found ways to make children and adults double over in laughter.

Redmond, who performed with Reubens at Asolo, recalled being invited to watch him perform during the early development of Pee-wee.

“He invited us to see him at Caroline’s Comedy Club in New York. It was strange but funny and he had all these props. I remember he held up a pair of jockey shorts that were probably for a man who weighed 600 pounds,” she said, adding that he ended up with a warehouse full of props and memorabilia.

Reubens auditioned to be part of the cast of “Saturday Night Live” but wasn’t chosen. Instead, Reubens created a stage show for Pee-wee that sold out for months in Los Angeles. By 1985, he was starring in the feature film “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” which led to the five-year run of the hit Saturday morning series “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” (1986-90). Adults and children were drawn to his comical interactions with a stable of regular characters, including Chairry, Captain Carl, the mysterious Jambi, Miss Yvonne and the King of Cartoons.

The feature film “Big-Top Pee-wee” followed in 1988.

But his success came crashing down when Reubens was arrested on July 26, 1991 in the South Trail Cinema, an adult movie theater in Sarasota, and charged along with several other men with indecent exposure. He initially denied the arrest, and his attorney Dan Dannheiser told the Herald-Tribune at the time that “his career will be over when the story runs.”

Reubens stayed out of view as CBS pulled reruns of the series and Pee-wee toys were removed from stores, but eventually Reubens re-emerged in a variety of other roles, playing the Penguin’s father in the 1992 film “Batman Returns,” a recurring role on “Murphy Brown” from 1995 to 1997, and an acclaimed performance in Ted Demme’s 2001 film “Blow” about the American cocaine market.

In 1996, he announced that he was putting Pee-wee behind him when he signed a deal for a television sitcom from the producers of “The Cosby Show” and “Roseanne,” but it never became a series.

Dozens of other roles followed, however, before he brought Pee-wee back. He made a memorable appearance as a surprise guest on the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards, where he greeted the crowd with the line, “Heard any good jokes lately?”

Eight years later, he fully embraced Pee-wee once again for what became Reubens' Broadway debut in “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” which opened to sold-out crowds and wide acclaim in a limited engagement. It featured many of Pee-wee’s favorite characters from his TV series and was later filmed for the HBO special “The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway,” released in 2011.

In 2016, he starred in the Netflix film “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” in which the character took his first vacation. More recently Reubens appeared in several episodes of “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” “Minecraft: Story Mode” and “The Blacklist,” and he provided voices for numerous animated series.

Reubens faced a second setback in 2002 when he was arrested in a child pornography investigation. Charges were dropped in 2004 in exchange for his guilty plea to a lesser misdemeanor obscenity charge, which also required him to register his address with the sheriff’s office for three years and not be in the company of minors without the permission of their parent or guardian.

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At the time, he wanted to make sure people did not think of him as a pedophile because of a collection of photos his attorneys described as kitsch. “I don’t want anyone for one second to think that I am titillated by images of children. It’s not me,” he was quoted as saying at the time.

Reubens’ father, a pilot who flew for the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army in World War II and was a founding pilot of the Israeli Air Force, died in 2004. His mother, Judy, died in 2019. Reubens is survived by his sister, Abby, and brother, Luke.

In the Instagram post, he asked that any memorial contributions be made in honor of his late parents to Stand Up to Cancer or organizations involved in dementia and Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Pee-wee Herman creator Paul Reubens dies at 70.