Paul Reubens’ Net Worth, Career, and Personal Life
Paul Reubens was an American comedian and actor popularly known for his role as Pee Wee Herman. Reubens has an estimated net worth of $5 million and died on July 2023 at the age of 70 at Cedars Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles.
Career Life of Paul Reubens
Reubens started his career in the entertainment industry in the 70s as an improv comedian and stage actor. His breakthrough in acting was when he got the role of Pee Wee Herman on the Pee Wee Herman Show in 1981 on HBO. Reubens worked with Tim Burton to create, produce, and direct Pee Wee’s Big Adventure in 1998. This was after the success of The Pee Wee Herman Show and the film was also a success making over $40 million having worked with a budget of $7 million.
CBS gave Reubens a chance to create, produce, and direct his own children’s show, and in 1986, he released Pee Wee’s Playhouse airing from 1986 to 1990, and was loved by both adults and children. CBS aired the reruns of Playhouse until 1991. The show won 22 Emmy Awards and Reubens was nominated in the Emmy Awards 14 times. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Playhouse was named one of the top 10 TV cult classics at the time.
Pee Wee’s Playhouse was dropped from the CBS lineup after Reubens was involved in a scandal and charged with marijuana and indecent exposure. He got his career back and was featured in films like Matilda, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blow, Mystery Men, and Murphy Brown. He had a role in the comedy Smurfs as the voice of Jokey.
He built a Pee Wee franchise making over $25 million from toys, clothes, and other child items. His book Travels with Pee Wee was published in 1989. Reubens lived for four decades in his 3,000-square-foot home in LA’s Los Feliz neighborhood worth $415,000. He sold the mansion for $3.8 million in 2024.
Personal Life of Paul Reubens
Reubens was born on August 27 1952 in Peekskill, New York. He grew up with his parents Judy a teacher and father Milton who owned a lamp store and was an automobile salesperson. He had two siblings Luke born in 1958 and Abby in 1953. Luke is a dog trainer and his sister is a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee and an attorney. His interest in entertainment was from when he was young as he would attend the Ringling Bros and Barnum &Bailey Circus in Sarasota and watch the reruns of, I Love Lucy.
Reubens’ father had a home-built stage for him to play with his siblings. He was arrested severally in 1971 for loitering, and in 1991 for possession of marijuana and indecent exposure, and was on a two-year probation. In 2002, he was in trouble with the law again for inappropriate sexual material of a child under 18 he denied the charges and said it was his vintage erotica collection.
He kept his illness a secret from the public and apologized in an Instagram post that was posted after his death for not going public with what he was going through. He passed on July 3rd, 2023 from lung cancer and myelogenous leukemia. Reubens had a successful career and accumulated a net worth of $5 million.
