A heartfelt message was made prior to his passing, telling how much he loved his fans and enjoyed making art for generations to come.
Mr. Reubens came to prominence for his character in the early 1980s starting with the HBO stage show, The Pee-Wee Herman Show. Followed by his jump to the silver screen in 1985's comedy classic and the directorial debut of filmmaker Tim Burton, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, released by Warner Bros. Pictures. The success of Big Adventure landed him his own television series on CBS, Pee-Wee's Playhouse from 1986-1990. However, after a 1991 arrest in Florida for indecent exposure, the public's consensus on both Pee-Wee and Reubens, in general, changed at the time.
After putting aside his Pee-Wee character since his incident, Reubens would later reunite with Tim Burton twice starting in 1992's Batman Returns portraying Tucker Cobblepot, the father of the Penguin at the start of the movie, and supplied the voice of Lock in the 1993 stop-motion feature film produced by Burton, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Reubens later returned to the spotlight in 1999, where he portrayed the Spleen in the superhero cult comedy, Mystery Men. It was then that Reubens would start giving interviews as just himself. But still contiuned to portray in-character on occassions.
Since making his comeback, Reubens reached a new audience for voice acting in animated cartoons from the likes of Chowder, Adventure Time, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tron Uprising, Voltron Legendary Defender, Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Where he voiced Batman's biggest fan, the awesome-sauce Bat-Mite.
He returned to his Pee-Wee character in the 2016 direct-to-streaming Netflix comedy, Pee-Wee's Big Holiday. His third feature film since Big Top Pee-Wee from 1988 from Paramount Pictures. That same year, Reubens reprised his role as the Penguin's Father in the Gotham television series. Then in 2018, he voiced the Dybbuk, Mike the Spike in the CW's Legends of Tomorrow.
Our deepest condolences to Mr. Reubens' friends, family, and a generation of fans at this time.
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