(Los Angeles) Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian whose character Pee-wee Herman became a cultural phenomenon through movies and TV shows, is dead.
Paul Reubens died overnight from Sunday to Monday after a six-year battle with cancer that he had not made public, his press secretary said in a statement.
“Please accept my apologies for not going public with what I’ve been through for the past six years,” Reubens said in a post announcing his death. “I’ve always felt so much love and respect from my friends, fans and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you. »
With his overly tight gray suit, white loafers, and red bow tie, the character was best known for the movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and the television series Pee-wee’s Playhouse.
Herman created Pee-wee when he was part of the Los Angeles improv group The Groundlings in the late 1970s. The Pee-wee Herman Show debuted in a Los Angeles theater in 1981 and was a success with both children in the matinee and adults during a performance at midnight.
Reubens brought Pee-wee to the big screen in 1985 in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. The film, in which Pee-wee has his bicycle stolen, is loosely based on Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neo-realist classic, The Bicycle Thief. The film, directed by Tim Burton and co-written by Saturday Night Live’s Phil Hartman, took Pee-wee on a cross-country jaunt. The film was a hit, grossing $40 million, and became a cult following for its goofy side.
A sequel was released three years later with the less well-received Big Top Pee-wee, in which Pee-wee seeks to join a circus. Reubens’ character didn’t have another starring movie role until 2016, with Pee-wee’s Big Holiday for Netflix. The big-screen revival of Pee-wee was produced by Judd Apatow.
His television series, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, ran for five seasons, won 22 Emmys, and attracted not only children but also adults on Saturday morning television.
Both funny and subversive, advocating non-conformism, the Pee-wee universe was a fun place, populated by such things as a talking chair and a friendly pterodactyl. The host, who loves secret words and fruit salad so much that he married her, tends to say things like “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Why don’t you take a picture, it will last longer?” The series was successful because it worked on many levels, though Reubens insists that wasn’t the plan.
“It’s for kids,” Reubens told The Associated Press in 2010. “For years people tried to get me to say, ‘It wasn’t really for kids, was it? not ?” Even the original series was for kids. I have always strived to make it child-friendly entertainment. »
“It was always all about intuition from the start,” Reubens told the AP. “That’s all it is and I think it always will be. Even if people want me to dissect it and explain it, I can’t. First, I don’t know, second, I don’t want to know, and third, I feel like I’m going to hurt myself if I know. »
