'Pee-Wee Herman' Star Paul Reubens Comes Out As Gay In Posthumous Documentary/ and his "Big Holiday" movie in 2016

I have always loved Pee Wee Herman. In a new posthumous documentary, he revealed he was gay. That was a surprise to me. I was also surprised to learn that in 2016 he made a third film called “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.” I found the trailer on-line and it looks as fun as the first "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" film. I need to see it! -I also loved his role in the 1999 Superhero comedy movie Mystery Men (which is explained in the blog). Today's blog is about the new documentary on Paul Rubens (Pee Wee's alter ego) and his career, with the movie trailer at the end!

 

'Pee-Wee Herman' Star Paul Reubens Comes Out As Gay In Posthumous Documentary 

"I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends," Reubens revealed in the new documentary "Pee-wee as Himself."

Huff Post, January 26, 2025

Reubens’ success as Pee-wee was undeniable. Throughout the 1980s, the character became a fixture on late night television, landing the star his Emmy-winning children’s show, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” and two hit films. (A third, far less celebrated Pee-wee film came out in 2016, years after Reubens’ career collapsed following his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure.)

Though he refused to be public about his sexuality during his career, the actor told Wolf he had “many, many secret relationships” amid the height of his fame. Despite refusing to come out as gay during his lifetime, Ruebens decided to make his sexuality public in the posthumous documentary, which is crafted from 40 hours of interviews done prior to his death at the age of 70 in 2023 due to acute hypoxic respiratory failure.

The star, who was also fighting two forms of cancer and kept his diagnosis private during the last years of his life, told Wolf how working on “Pee-wee as Himself” gave him a chance to shape his own legacy after years of scandal, speculation and gossip.

“More than anything, the reason I wanted to make a documentary was for people to see who I really am, and how painful and dreadful it was to be labeled something I wasn’t,” he told the filmmaker. “To be labeled a pariah; to have people be scared of you, or untrusting.”

In 1985, the stage show’s wild success led to the character’s first full-length film, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” directed by Tim Burton in his feature directorial debut. The movie, which sent Pee-wee on a cross-country journey to find his stolen red bicycle, was a critical and financial success and went on to achieve cult film status. 

Reubens later starred in “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” a CBS children’s program that ran from 1986 to 1991. The show was peppered with former Groundlings stars, including Phil Hartman and Lynne Marie Stewart, and existed as a sort of otherworldly Pee-wee dreamscape, complete with talking appliances and furniture, puppets interacting with human characters, and quirky clay animation.

But as the show was wrapping up, Reubens’ career came to a standstill. In 1991, he was arrested in Florida for masturbating in an adult movie theater, spawning a litany of jokes on late-night shows. Many of Reubens’ famous friends, including Cyndi Lauper and Zsa Zsa Gabor, spoke out in his defense, but Reubens largely retreated from public life, save for a few non-Pee-wee roles throughout the rest of the ’90s.

MOVIE TRAILER: "Pee Wee's Big Holiday" : https://youtu.be/Quo-Oen1wkY?si=gUBhNUHAXmPfMV-2

He played a few small roles in big films, including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Batman Returns” in 1992. He tiptoed back into public appearances to promote “Mystery Men,” a 1999 comedy where Reubens played an amateur superhero with flatulence so pungent it makes people faint. Over the years, Reubens appeared on a number of television shows as well, including “30 Rock,” “Reno 911,” “Portlandia” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

(Photo: Heroes of "Mystery Men" from 1999. Paul Rubens is 3rd from the right)

After years of dormancy (and another misdemeanor charge concerning his vintage erotica collection in 2002), Reubens brought the Pee-wee character back to the stage in 2010 with runs in Los Angeles and New York. 

Six years later in 2016, “Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” directed by John Lee and produced by Judd Apatow, premiered on Netflix to largely positive reviews.