Paul Reubens, Eternally Pee-wee Herman, Dead at 70
Paul Reubens speaking with attendees at the 2019 Phoenix Fan Fusion at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Photo by Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere.
Known for his rise as Pee-wee Herman, fall from favor over a public lewdness and child pornography scandals, and eclectic and memorable acting roles since, Paul Reubens has died at 70 of cancer.
Reubens began his career in the 1970s after joining the Los Angeles live comedy troupe the Groundlings as an improvisational comedian and stage actor. In 1980, he launched “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” a stage production centered on a fictional character he had been developing for years. As Pee-wee became a cult figure, Reubens’ show ran for five sold-out months, and he landed a special at HBO. Reubens also committed to the character in his interviews and public appearances.
In 1985, he teamed with Tim Burton on “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” the character’s feature film debut, which was a critical and commercial success. Reubens returned three years later for a follow-up film, “Big Top Pee-wee,” helmed by Randal Kleiser. The character transitioned to television from 1986 to 1990, on CBS’ weekend morning show “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
Reubens’ image as a beloved childhood hero was tarnished when, in 1991, he was arrested for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater in Sarasota, Fla. At the center of a national sex scandal, Reubens backed away from Pee-wee and began doing press as himself. He wouldn’t again reprise the iconic role until 2010, when he revived “The Pee-wee Herman Show” on Broadway and made several other appearances, on “WWE Raw” and in a couple of digital sketches for Funny or Die. In 2016, Reubens co-wrote and starred in Netflix’s “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” a sequel to 1988’s “Big Top,” which would serve as Reubens’ final film role before his death.
Throughout his career, Reubens starred in a variety of other projects as well, including Kinka Usher’s superhero comedy “Mystery Men” and Ted Demme’s biographical crime drama “Blow.” He also appeared in “Batman Returns,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Matilda,” and his television credits include “30 Rock,” “The Blacklist,” “Pushing Daisies,” “Hercules,” “Rugrats,” “Reno 911!” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”
In 2002, after turning himself in to the Hollywood division of the Los Angeles Police Department, Reubens was charged with misdemeanor possession of obscene material improperly depicting a child under the age of 18 in sexual conduct. A self-proclaimed collector of erotica, Reubens disagreed with the city’s classification of pornography. His child pornography charges were dropped in 2004 after he agreed to plead guilty to a lesser misdemeanor obscenity charge.
In an interview with NBC News’ Stone Phillips, Herman said in 2005: “One thing I want to make very, very clear, I don’t want anyone for one second to think that I am titillated by images of children. It’s not me. You can say lots of things about me. And you might. The public may think I’m weird. They may think I’m crazy or anything that anyone wants to think about me. That’s all fine. As long as one of the things you’re not thinking about me is that I’m a pedophile. Because that’s not true.”
It’s worth pointing out that almost all the charges against Rueben were basically because he was gay.
The indecent exposure thing was due to the police going undercover at a gay porn theater, which, in case anyone is confused, would have been literally one of the only places to see gay porn in 1991, and it was assumed pretty much everyone was masturbating there, that was the point of being there, so it seems really absurd to charge anyone with indecent exposure for that.
He also denies he actually was masturbating, and it does appear the police just sorta randomly arrested people there.
And at some point you have to ask yourself yourself why the police were sending undercover agents to sit in gay porn theaters to try to find people masturbating, and not the other porn theaters. Wait, no you don’t, it’s 1991, open discrimination against gay people is perfectly normal.
As for the child porn stuff…Rueben collected vintage stuff, and often ordered by lots, and the police raided him on a tip that seems to have been mostly untrue.
A small portion of his stuff shows underaged boys without clothes…but in magazines that were openly produced as nudist magazines and stuff. None of it depicts minors having sex or even overtly sexual, and it’s worth pointing out he has a _huge_ collection of this sort of vintage stuff, with a tiny fraction of it nudity and even smaller amount minors. We’re talking about thousand of images and ‘physique magazines’ (Aka, things gay men bought before gay porn was legal), along with just vintage stuff, and a maybe a dozen images of nude people in the magazines who might be minors, all of which he bought mostly sight unseen, and don’t actually appear to be sexual at all. This is just the sort of thing that happens if you buy a _lot_ of old stuff.
The DA actually looked at it and didn’t prosecute, he was prosecuted by a city attorney.
Also, the police, somehow, ‘accidentally’, confused another taped they’d gotten from somewhere else as part of his evidence, a tape that depicted teen boys having sex, and leaked that fact to the press, until his lawyer was able to prove it wasn’t part of his evidence. Weird, that. Wonder how that could have happened. So odd.
Basically, what is going on here is that Paul Rueben got caught up in at least two targeted sweeps against gay men, and ending up having to plea to two lesser deals in an attempt to keep from having to go on trial as a gay man. Because him being outed as a gay man in 1991 or even 2004 would have likely ruined his career. And, yes, it sounds completely absurd that pleading guilty to minor sex crimes was better than being outed as gay, but that was the world back then.Report