Pee Wee S Big Holiday, Pee Wee Herman
The Forgotten Roles of Paul Reubens, From Batman to Blow
 |
| Pee Wee S Big Holiday, Pee Wee Herman |
Most people know Paul Reubens chiefly for his persona as Pee-wee Herman, the gleeful oddball character he debuted almost 40 years ago. But away from Pee-wee, Reubens has had an under-appreciated career as a character actor and voiceover performer in films like Batman Returns (right) and television shows like Mork and Mindy and The Blacklist
With the impending debut of Pee-wee's Big Holiday on Netflix set to once again cause Reubens’ most recognizable creation to overshadow the rest of his work, here are the films and television shows where he notably appears as someone other than Pee-wee Herman
Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie 1980
Reubens’ role in the second feature from Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong is arguably the first appearance of Pee-wee Herman on film. He plays a hotel clerk who argues with Chong and Cheech's cousin “Red” (also played by Marin), and is later mistakenly arrested by the police. Despite exhibiting the same mannerisms he’d employ as Pee-wee, this isn’t strictly speaking a Pee-wee Herman appearance, and given the content of a Cheech & Chong film, it’s certainly not the kind of environment Reubens' character would occupy later in his career (even if Chairy often did seem stoned
Blues Brothers 1980
In the first film based on characters from Saturday Night Live, Reubens appears as a waiter in the restaurant where trumpet player Mr. Fabulous is now the maître d'. This scene was filmed at the now-closed Chez Paul in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago—the same fancy restaurant featured in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Meatballs Part II 1984
A narratively unrelated sequel to the Ivan Reitman-directed, Bill Murray-starring 1979 summer camp comedy, the opening scene features Reubens as Albert, a disgruntled bus driver. He’s so cranky at his job that he leaves the driver’s seat to turn around and yell at kids pelting him with garbage and tries to run down somebody in a suped-up electric wheelchair
Flight of the Navigator 1986
This somewhat forgotten science-fiction family film centers on David (Joey Cramer), a 12-year-old who falls into a ravine in 1978 and wakes up to find himself in 1986, having been presumed dead by everyone he knows. Reubens provided the voice of Max, the spaceship that scoops David up to study him. It’s difficult to hear Reubens behind the voice except for one scene, where Max learns how to laugh, and Reubens unleashes his unmistakable giggle
Batman Returns 1991
Tim Burton rose to live-action prominence by directing Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, so it made sense that he would cast Reubens in the sequel to the overwhelmingly successful first Batman film. In Burton’s version of Gotham City, the Penguin, aka Oswald Cobblepot (Danny DeVito), is a deformed child who survived for years in the sewers of the city after being rejected by wealthy couple Esther (Diane Salinger) and Tucker Cobblepot (Reubens) in the prologue. Though this lineage wasn't a part of Penguin's continuity before this film, Reubens is reprising his role after 25 years on an upcoming episode of Gotham
