Growing up, one of my favorite movies was “Flight of the Navigator” and this guest was the voice of the ship, credited as “Paul Mall”!!!! And the pilot in the awesome “Star Tours” at Disneyland!!!! I don’t care if it was just his first flight, he might still be getting used to his programming, it was beyond an adventure out of this world 😉 -RW
Paul Reubens began his career at the age of 11 when he started acting in a local theater. When he graduated from high school he attended Boston University for a year before heading west to Hollywood to become an acting major at California Institute of the Arts.
His acting career grew with him taking small roles in theater productions, gigs at local comedy clubs and multiple guest appearances on The Gong Show (1976). During his time in school and taking small roles he joined the comedy improv group The Groundlings. During his tenure with the group he created his most famous character, Pee-Wee Herman (insert famous laugh here).
Pee-Wee Herman only had a 10-minute act in the show but gained a large following allowing him to have his own sold-out show for 5 months, and even had an HBO special in 1981.
With his new-found fame became a comedy-circuit regular having multiple appearances on David Letterman, and even auditioned for Saturday Night Live. He didn’t get the part, so he decided to develop a feature length screenplay which he asked his friend Tim Burton to Direct. This became Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, where the eponymous character goes on a cross-country adventure to recover his beloved bike.
This film brought the attention of CBS who were losing their audience to cable channels, and wanted to strengthen their Saturday morning line-up. CBS signed him to act/produce and to direct the live-action children’s program called Pee-wee’s Playhouse (1986). The Network paid a surprising budget of $325,000 per episode — the same as they would pay for a prime- time sitcom. Reubens was given complete creative control, and during its five-year-run on CBS, he never appeared in general as himself.
After an incident in 1991 he took advantage of no longer playing Pee-Wee Herman to be in other roles, including working again with Tim Burton, playing the father of the Penguin, and doing a voice-over for Nightmare Before Christmas. He returned his role of The Penguin’s father in the current series Gotham.
He was asked by Netflix to bring the character of Pee-Wee Herman back for the film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday (2016).
Checkout Paul Reubens on his ‘log‘, and at Phoenix Fan Fusion at his panel
Saturday, May 25, 2019 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm
as well as autograph and photo opportunities during the event.
Phoenix Fan Fusion this year (2019) is May 23-26. Make sure to get your tickets NOW!
