WHAT HAPPENED TO PEEWEE HERMAN? does anyone know?

Question

10 points to the best answer

Answer 1

Here's some stuff on him....


Paul Reubens
AKA Paul Rubenfeld

Born: 27-Aug-1952
Birthplace: Peekskill, NY


Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Pee-wee Herman

As a boy, Reubens spent his earliest years in upstate New York, a setting he still describes as "storybook". When he was in the fourth grade, his family moved to Sarasota, Florida, the winter headquarters for Ringling Brothers/Barnum & Bailey Circus, and he often saw people on the street who were obviously performers. On a stroll with his parents, he once heard an explosion and saw someone flying through the air between two houses -- it was a circus family, practicing firing each other out of a cannon in their back yard. Young Reubens loved I Love Lucy, The Mickey Mouse Club, Captain Kangaroo, and Howdy Doody. He started appearing in local stage productions at the age of 11, and one summer his parents let him go to circus camp.

In the 1970s, Reubens started working as a dramatic actor, but he loved The Gong Show, and concocted an act with struggling comic Charlotte McGinnis, as "The Hilarious Betty & Eddie". They won $500, and were invited back. As Eddie and other characters, Reubens appeared on The Gong Show 15 times. He joined the Groundlings improvisational group, and performed for six years alongside several comics who eventually became famous, including Reubens' lifelong friend Phil Hartman.

The character of Pee-wee Herman was born as part of a Groundlings revue in 1977, written by Reubens and Hartman. The idea was to play a comedian who couldn't possibly be a successful comedian. In a too-tight suit, he said stupid things, showed the audience his toys, and threw Tootsie Rolls into the crowd. There was lots of applause, and Reubens knew he could milk the character for more laughs. In 1981, The Pee-wee Herman Show was filmed for HBO, with Reubens and a bizarre supporting cast, and with some adult-oriented material that would never air on his later Saturday morning show. He auditioned for Saturday Night Live, but didn't get the job.

Disappointed, Reubens turned his energy toward the Pee-wee character, writing a script "almost out of spite". When CBS picked up Pee-wee's Playhouse, the adult humor had been expunged, but adults still found it hilarious. Reubens always said the show wasn't so much for kids as for hungover college students. Hartman played Captain Carl, Pee-wee's sailor friend. Laurence Fishburne played the genial Cowboy Curtis. Gregory Harrison voiced Conky, the Robot. A pre-pubescent Natasha Lyonne played Opal. S. Epatha Merkerson played Reba the mail-lady. In its five-year run, CBS ordered a total of 45 episodes -- an average of nine per year. Pee-Wee's Playhouse won 22 Emmys -- almost an Emmy every two episodes, which might be the highest award ratio for any TV series ever.


"I felt like a total oddball almost every minute when I was growing up. And that was sort of the whole point of the show, that it would be hard to stand out in the playhouse. Everything stood out in the playhouse, so you could feel right at home no matter who you are or what you were thinking."
Reubens' Pee-wee movies, Tim Burton's classic Pee-wee's Big Adventure and the lesser Big Top Pee-wee with Kris Kristofferson, are still enjoyable even upon repeated viewings. Reubens has also played a raccoon in Eddie Murphy's Dr. Dolittle, a drug dealing hairdresser in Blow with Johnny Depp, and The Spleen in the delightful but underrated Mystery Men with Hank Azaria and Janeane Garofalo.

In 1991, a year after Pee-wee's Playhouse was cancelled, Reubens was arrested in an adult movie theater, where police said he was "indecently exposed" and presumably masturbating. He pleaded no contest, and was fined $135. The media vilified him as a pervert, and reruns of Pee-wee's Playhouse were abruptly jerked off the air.

In 2001, Reubens' house was raided by police, who confiscated 30,000 items from his collection of vintage erotica. The DA waited 364 days (one day before the statute of limitations would have run out) and then alleged that some of it was "child pornography" -- decades-old physique poses, old art photos, and yellowed nudist magazines. Some of the nude photos were of minors -- when the pictures were taken, but most of the models would have been dead of old age before Reubens was born. All of the photos, Reubens maintained, were legal when they were first published. Again, though, he settled. The charges were reduced to "obscenity", and Reubens pleaded guilty and paid a $100 fine in exchange for probation.

"Personally, I think we're living in a very scary time. Do we let the legal system decide in a courtroom what's obscene and what's not obscene? I didn't want to be in a situation where there was a possibility I could go to jail... I mean, that just seemed insane to me."
Reubens has written a screenplay for Pee-wee's return to the big screen. The only question is whether any studio will let him make it. Some people, after all, still think of Reubens as some kind of pervert. To which he would no doubt reply, "I know you are, but what am I?"


"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."

Father: Milton Rubenfeld (owned a lighting store, d. 21-Feb-2004, cancer)
Mother: Judy Rubenfeld
Sister: Abby Rubenfeld (attorney)
Brother: Luke Rubenfeld (dog trainer)
Wife: Charlene Gail "Chandi" Heffner (m. 1991)


High School: Sarasota High School, Sarasota, FL (1970)
University: Boston University (dropped out)
University: California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA (1971-75)


Groundlings 1980s
Emmy
Drug Possession: Marijuana 1971, charge dropped
Loitering Sarasota, FL 1983
Indecent Exposure Sarasota, FL 1991
Child Pornography Los Angeles, CA 15-Nov-2002, charge reduced to obscenity
Risk Factors: Marijuana


TELEVISION
Pee-wee's Playhouse Pee-wee Herman (1986-91)
Hopeless Pictures Gollum (voice, 2005-)


FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Teacher's Pet (16-Jan-2004) [VOICE]
Overnight (12-Jun-2003) Himself
Blow (29-Mar-2001)
South of Heaven, West of Hell (28-Jan-2000)
Mystery Men (22-Jul-1999)
Doctor Dolittle (13-Jun-1998) [VOICE]
Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas (11-Nov-1997) [VOICE]
Buddy (6-Jun-1997)
Matilda (2-Aug-1996)
Dunston Checks In (12-Jan-1996)
The Nightmare Before Christmas (13-Oct-1993) [VOICE]
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (31-Jul-1992)
Batman Returns (19-Jun-1992)
Moonwalker (16-Dec-1988) [VOICE]
Big Top Pee-wee (22-Jul-1988)
Back to the Beach (7-Aug-1987)
Flight of the Navigator (30-Jul-1986) [VOICE]
Pee-wee's Big Adventure (19-Jul-1985)
Meatballs Part II (27-Jul-1984)
Pandemonium (1982)
Nice Dreams (24-Jul-1981)
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (25-Jul-1980)
The Blues Brothers (16-Jun-1980)
Midnight Madness (8-Feb-1980)


Official Website:
http://www.peewee.com/

Answer 2

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
WHAT HAPPENED TO PEEWEE HERMAN? does anyone know?
10 points to the best answer

Answer 3

Well, the last thing I know of him doing is the video for Steady As She Goes by The Raconteurs. He's the weasly side-kick that knocks them all out of the race. I think he's got some movies coming up, and is getting back to being recognized, as they're showing repeats of Pee-Wee's Playhouse on Adult Swim.

Answer 4

Paul Reubens


Date of birth (location)
27 August 1952
Peekskill, New York, USA

Sometimes Credited As:
Pee Wee Herman / Pee-wee Herman / Paul Mall

Two upcoming movies:

Reno 911!: Miami (2007) (filming)
The Tripper (2007) (post-production) .... Frank Baker

As to what happened to him ...

The image of Pee-Wee was broken on July 26, 1991. On his summer vacation, Reubens was visiting his parents in Sarasota and sought escape from boredom by catching a showing of the X-rated film, Nurse Nancy. He fell victim to a police sting operation and was arrested for sex charges when detectives allegedly saw him playing with his private parts. He was released on $219 bail and nobody realized what had happened until somebody recognized him beneath his long hair and goatee. The media went berserk: 'Kids show star arrested for indecent exposure'. Because of his behavior, CBS dropped the Playhouse and related merchandise was released from its shelves. He agreed to pay a $50 fine plus $85 in court costs to Sarasota County, and he produced a 30 second public service message for the Partnership For Drug-Free America commercial. As part of the deal, the county sealed all legal papers relating to the actor's arrest and didn't leave Reubens with a criminal record. The scandal marked the virtual death of Pee-Wee Herman. Reubens appeared as his favorite character for the last time at that Autumn's MTV Music Video Awards. He bounded onto the stage before a standing ovation and asked, "Heard any good jokes lately?" in reference to being the butt of many current punchlines. "What was that one? Oh, so funny I forgot to laugh!" The enthusiastic reception was not surprising, as he had received 15 thousand supportive letters during his arrest. Regardless, he had recently made a promise not to play Pee-Wee anymore and used his arrest as an chance to portray other roles.

His career may never reach Herman's heights again, but Reubens has landed a series of offbeat character roles. One year after he was taken into custody, he appeared in Burton's Batman Returns (1992) as the Penguin's unloving father, and as a vampire henchman in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). Subsequent jobs have included a voice over for Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), a healthy stint as Andrew J. Lansing III on "Murphy Brown" (1988), and roles in the feature films, Dunston Checks In (1996), Matilda (1996), Buddy (1997) and Mystery Men (1999). He also signed to emcee a new game show based on the popular 'You Don't Know Jack' CD-ROM version.

Answer 5

I can't remember what it was at the moment, but I've seen him in a film or two playing a relatively normal character, did recognize him, and he's credited as Paul Reubens, so he's at least still working...whether or not he's still wanking, frankly I don't really care...

Answer 6

I saw him on Conan O'brien the other night he said he just finished writing a Pee Wee Herman movie Script....I think ....well he wrote something lol.

Answer 7

Getting off at your local Regal Cinnema!! priceless!

Answer 8

Paul Reubens Death

Answer 9

I saw him on Conan O' brien and he's coming back!

Answer 10

New movie coming out...(soon?) sorry, can't remember any specifics but yea he is still around.

Answer 11

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Ehhhh... he went to the movies and no one has really seen him much since.