Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian best known for portraying Pee-wee Herman, has died at 70 after a battle with cancer.
Reubens, who battled cancer for six years, did not make his fight with the disease public.
"Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” Reubens wrote in a statement posted to social media after his death. “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, born Paul Rubenfeld in Peekskill, New York, grew up in Sarasota, Florida, with his family. His father, Milton Rubenfeld, flew for the U.S. Army and the U.K.'s Royal Air Force during World War II before becoming one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Milton Reubenfeld and his fellow founding pilots were credited with turning the tide of the conflict.
Reubens grew up with a love for entertainment. As a child, he watched the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which was based in Sarasota in the winter, and once told Conan O'Brien that he "always thought he'd wind up in the circus." (Reubens even spent summers at circus camp, he told O'Brien in 2004.)
He later attended Boston University and California Institute of the Arts. It was in California where Reubens joined iconic improvisational comedy troupe The Groundlings, which was not only where he befriended future "Pee-wee's Playhouse" costar Phil Hartman, but also developed the character that would make him a household name: Pee-wee Herman.
"We were doing what we called an extended improv, which would mean that instead of a five-minute scene, it would oftentimes be a 30-minute scene, and we were all supposed to be characters that you would see at a comedy club, performers at a comedy club," Reubens explained of creating the character to host Peter Sagal on NPR's "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" in 2011.
"I'm so bad with jokes, I could never remember the punchlines or I could only remember the punchline, I can't remember the setup," he continued. "So I just thought I would be the comic that would never make it, that you could tell right off the bat, oh, this guy is never going to be successful."
After missing out on "Saturday Night Live" (in favor of comedian Gilbert Gottfried), Reubens developed "The Pee-wee Herman Show" in 1980 as a stage show, which served as a debut of sorts for the character. The stage show was a smash hit, regularly selling out The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles before HBO aired it as a special.
Reubens would take the character into the stratosphere with the hit 1985 film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure," directed by Tim Burton, and "Pee-wee's Playhouse," which aired on Saturday mornings on CBS from 1986 to 1990 and won 15 Emmy awards.
Both silly and subversive and championing nonconformity, the Pee-wee universe was a trippy place, populated by things like a talking armchair and a friendly pterodactyl. The host, who is fond of secret words and loves fruit salad so much he once married it, is prone to lines like, “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Why don’t you take a picture; it’ll last longer?” The act was a hit because it worked on multiple levels, even though Reubens insists that wasn’t the plan.
“It’s for kids,” Reubens told The Associated Press in 2010. “People have tried to get me for years to go, ‘It wasn’t really for kids, right?’ Even the original show was for kids. I always censored myself to have it be kid-friendly.
“The whole thing has been just a gut feeling from the beginning," Reubens told the AP. "That’s all it ever is and I think always ever be. Much as people want me to dissect it and explain it, I can’t. One, I don’t know, and two, I don’t want to know, and three, I feel like I’ll hex myself if I know.”
Reubens made frequent appearances on on "Late Night with David Letterman" in character, toured the U.S. with a new Pee-wee Herman stage show and even loaned his voice to the droid Captain Rex in Disney's "Star Tours" attraction based on the "Star Wars" films.
In 1991, Reubens was arrested for indecent exposure at an adult movie theater in Sarasota, Florida. He denied the charges and later pleaded no contest. Though the show had already ended at that point, the Pee-wee Herman character was still quite popular at the time of the incident. Amid the backlash, Toys 'R' Us pulled Pee-wee Herman toys from its shelves and Reubens largely retreated from public life, save for an appearance at the 1991 MTV Music Video Awards, where after thunderous applause and cheers, he delivered the line: "Heard any good jokes lately?"
After keeping a relatively low profile for a while, Reubens returned to the spotlight in the classic sitcom "Murphy Brown," where he received his lone non-Pee-wee Emmy nomination for his portrayal of recurring character Andrew J. Lansing III. He also received rave reviews for his performance in the 2001 film "Blow."
In 2001, Reubens was arrested and charged with misdemeanor possession of child pornography after police seized images from his computer and photography collection, but the allegation was reduced to an obscenity charge and he was given three years probation.
Reubens later revived the Pee-wee Herman character in 2009 for a new stage show and once again in 2016 for the Netflix film "Pee-wee's Big Holiday," in addition to other appearances and interviews.
"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," a statement on his Facebook page reads.
"Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit," the statement continues, "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.s.