Paul Reubens Played More DC Characters Than You Likely Realized

Fans and showbiz professionals are mourning the loss of Pee-wee Herman comedian Paul Reubens, who died at age 70 on June 30, 2023. According to Variety, the veteran television and film star has been privately fighting cancer for the past six years.

After developing the character on stage, Rueben's big-screen debut as Pee-wee Herman came in 1980 with a role as the character in "Cheech and Chong's Next Movie." That was followed by TV specials and series featuring Pee-wee throughout the 1980s. However, his 1985 feature film "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" not only brought the character to his biggest audience yet, it effectively laid the groundwork for his debut in the DC movie and television universe because of his association with the movie's director, Tim Burton.

Burton, whose feature directorial debut came with Reubens' film, shot to the top of Hollywood's A-list after directing of the 1989 blockbuster "Batman." A sequel naturally followed, and in 1992 the filmmaker called on Reubens to play Tucker Cobblepot, the father of the infant Oswald Cobblepot — aka the Penguin (played by Danny DeVito as an adult) — in "Batman Returns."

Reubens appears opposite Diane Salinger, who plays the Penguin's mother, in the opening scenes of "Batman Returns" as the couple abandons their deformed infant in the sewers of Gotham. While Reubens' turn in the film is brief, his time playing the father of the feared Batman villain was not.

Nearly 24 years after first playing the father of the Penguin in "Batman Returns," Reubens reprised the role in 2016 for the Fox Television series "Gotham."

Instead of playing Tucker Cobblepot, though, Reubens assumed the role of wealthy socialite Elijah Van Dahl, the biological father of Robin Lord Taylor's iteration of Oswald. Reubens appeared as the character in two episodes of Season 2 of "Gotham," and was back for another episode in Season 3 in 2017.

In between turns as the Penguin's father, Reubens explored different areas in the DC realm, first by voicing the diminutive character Bat-Mite on the animated series "Batman: The Brave and the Bold." Reubens voiced the character for four episodes that stretched across all three seasons of the show from 2009 to 2011. He also reprised the voice role for the TV movie "LEGO DC Comics: Batman Be-Leaguered" in 2014.

While Reubens played his DC characters straight in "Batman Returns" and "Gotham," he wasn't afraid to parody some the comic book giant's most revered villains. As such, Reubens voiced the Riddler for the stop-motion animated parody "Robot Chicken DC Comics Special II: Villains in Paradise" in 2012, and again in 2015's "Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship."

A prolific voice actor whose credits included animated films, television, and video games, Reubens also lent his vocal talents to the live-action series "DC Legends of Tomorrow," which marked his last project for DC. Over the course of five episodes in 2018 and 2019, Reubens voiced the villainous Dybbuk puppet Mike the Spike.