American comedian Paul Reubens, famous for his eccentric man-child character Pee-wee Herman, a role he had abandoned after being arrested in a pornographic cinema, died at the age of 70.
The New York actor died Sunday, July 30, after a six-year battle with cancer, according to a statement posted Monday on the actor’s official social media accounts. “Paul battled cancer courageously and privately for years with the tenacity and spirit that characterized him”explains the press release, pointing out that his character of “Pee-wee Herman, has enchanted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness. » The actor had never publicly mentioned his illness.
Born in 1952 in New York State, Paul Reubens began his career as a comedian in Los Angeles in the 1970s.
American TV star, Jimmy Kimmel, highlighted Paul Reubens’ cross-generational humor: “He was one of a kind, a brilliant and original comedian, who made children and their parents laugh at the same time. He never forgot a birthday, and he shared his genuine pleasure in being silly with everyone he met. We will miss him. »
From 1980, his character Pee-wee Herman, a slender crank with a childlike character and the eternal red bow tie, propelled him to stardom.
In the cinema, success and scandal
Pee-wee notably had his own television show in the United States, from 1986 to 1990, and a film directed by Tim Burton in 1985, the director’s first feature film.
This commissioned work, Peewee’s Big Adventure, turns out to be a real auteur film, in which the salient features (presence of the marvelous, attraction for outsiders, caustic verve…) of Burton’s universe are clearly noticeable. This realization propels Pee-wee Herman on the roads of America in search of his stolen bike, a road movie where multiple gags and unstoppable finds come together. The feature film reaches its climax during a frenetic chase, a pretext for a joyous sacking of the Warner studios.
If we can consider that the second half of the 1980s corresponds to the height of his career, Paul Reubens then suffered a resounding fall, when he was arrested in a pornographic cinema in Florida in 1991. The actor, who was accused of masturbating in front of the screen and was charged with exhibitionism, never disputed the facts.
This scandal plunged him into a crossing of the desert, during which the actor largely disappeared from the screens.
After minor roles in the cinema, Paul Reubens finally took over the character of Pee-wee Herman in the 2010s, first on Broadway, then during a show produced by Netflix.