Paul Reubens Comes Out as Gay in Documentary
Paul Reubens, better known as his on-screen persona “Pee-wee Herman,” came out posthumously in a recently released documentary.The documentary, Pee-wee as Himself, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23.
It features Reubens — who died in July 2023 at age 70 — reflecting on his life and rumors about his sexuality. Reubens discusses why he hid his sexuality after becoming famous in the 1980s for his portrayal of Pee-wee, a character Reubens developed as part of the Groundlings, a noted improvisational comedy troupe.“I hid behind an alter ego,” Reubens says in the film, as first reported by The New York Post. “I spent my entire adult life hiding [that] I was a huge weed head.
I was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation. I was conflicted about sexuality.
But fame was way more complicated.”Pee-wee became nationally beloved as the title character in the Emmy Award-winning Saturday morning children’s television show, Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which ran from 1986 to 1990.
