“I have always felt a huge amount of love and respect from my friends, fans and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you.”

The character with his too-tight grey suit, white chunky loafers and red bow tie was best known for the film Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and the television series Pee-Wee’s Playhouse.

Herman created Pee-Wee when he was part of the Los Angeles improvisation group The Groundlings in the late 1970s.

The live Pee-Wee Herman Show debuted at a Los Angeles theatre in 1981 and was a success with both children during matinees and adults at a midnight show. HBO would broadcast the show as a special.

Reubens took Pee-Wee to the big screen in 1985’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The film, in which Pee-Wee’s cherished bike is stolen, was said to be loosely based on Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neo-realist classic, The Bicycle Thief.

Actor Julian Sands confirmed dead, months after vanishing in California mountains

The film, directed by Tim Burton and co-written by Phil Hartman of Saturday Night Live, sent Pee-Wee on a nationwide escapade. It grossed US$40 million and continued to spawn a cult following for its oddball whimsy.

A sequel followed three years later in the less well received Big Top Pee-Wee, in which Pee-Wee seeks to join a circus. Reubens’ character would not get another film starring role until 2016’s Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday for Netflix. Judd Apatow produced Pee-Wee’s big-screen revival.

His television series, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse, ran for five seasons, earned 22 Emmy awards and attracted not only children but adults to Saturday-morning television.

Both silly and subversive and championing nonconformity, the Pee-Wee universe was a trippy place, populated by things such as a talking armchair and a friendly pterodactyl.

The host, who is fond of secret words and loves fruit salad so much he once married it, is prone to lines such as, “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Why don’t you take a picture; it’ll last longer?” The act was a hit because it worked on multiple levels, even though Reubens insists that was not the plan.

“It’s for kids,” Reubens told Associated Press in 2010. “People have tried to get me for years to go, ‘It wasn’t really for kids, right?’ Even the original show was for kids. I always censored myself to have it be kid-friendly.

“The whole thing has been just a gut feeling from the beginning,” Reubens said.

“That’s all it ever is and I think always ever be. Much as people want me to dissect it and explain it, I can’t. One, I don’t know, and two, I don’t want to know, and three, I feel like I’ll hex myself if I know.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ku6bD0miuqKqcmXy2usitnJ1lo6mutbHSZpqappGZrnCt0a2gnKSVZIBzfphua3FnoJqybsPEnmShnaKirq95wJyrqKpdpa62uIyrnK6alaPAbrDInqpmm5GjsKa%2BjHBn