NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 14: Actor Paul Reubens 'Pee-wee Herman' speaks onstage at the 10th Annual TV Land Awards at the Lexington Avenue Armory on April 14, 2012 in New ...

Before his death in 2023, Reubens filmed an HBO documentary in which he explained why he refused to be seen or interviewed as himself for the whole time Pee-Wee Herman was starring in TV and films.

Everyone seems to have a personal story about Paul Reubens, aka Pee-wee Herman. And those stories seem always to revolve around birthdays. I didn’t know Reubens, but apparently half of the people on ...

With his bow tie, short drainpipe pants and flattop hairdo, Pee-wee became enshrined in the popular imagination as a symbol of childlike whimsy. By Neil Genzlinger Paul Reubens, the comic actor whose ...