Bravo Andy Cohen.
Andy Cohen is mourning the death of actor Paul Reubens. The “Watch What Happens Live” host posted tributes to the late star on social media following his unexpected death at age 70.
Reubens, who was also known by his stage name Pee-wee Herman, died on July 30, 2023, after a long and private battle with cancer, Deadline reported. The 70-year-old actor and comedian, who rose to fame in the early 1980s, was best known for his stage show, TV series, and movies in which he played his childlike alter ego Pee-wee.
Andy Cohen Called Paul Reubens a “True Artist’
In a post shared to his Instagram page shortly after Reubens’ death was announced, Cohen posted the opening segment to Reubens’ former TV show, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.” The kiddie comedy show aired on CBS on Saturday mornings in the late 1980s.
“Absolute unhinged brilliance!” Cohen captioned the clip. “Paul Reubens was a true artist. We are so lucky we got to enjoy him.”
Cohen also paid tribute to Reubens in a “Mazel of the Day” segment on “What What Happens Live.” The Bravo host said he was a “huge” fan of the late actor and that his influence can be seen in the Bravo Clubhouse.
Cohen also shared that while he barely knew Reubens personally, he received a birthday message from him each year. You can see Cohen’s tribute below:
Cohen also posted on his Threads account to remember Reubens. “Paul Reubens was a true original. A DELIGHT,” he wrote.
And according to Page Six, Cohen commented on another social media post about Reubens’ death with, “The greatest. No one ever like him ever.”
Paul Reubens Never Appeared on ‘Watch What Happens Live,’ But Andy Cohen Talked About Him on the Show
Bravo/GettyAndy Cohen and Paul Reubens.
Reubens never appeared on “Watch What Happens Live,” but his name has come up in the past on Cohen’s Bravo late-night show. On the ‘Watch What Happens Live” after-show in October 2021, guest Morgan Fairchild shared a long-winded rale about working with Reubens in the 1985 movie “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” Cohen appeared to be very entertained by the behind-the-scenes of the film, as seen in a clip posted on BravoTV.com.
In a 2020 episode of WWHL, Cohen’s close friend John Mayer also used a ‘Pee-wee” quote when explaining why he wouldn’t be reading his ex-girlfriend Jessica Simpson’s memoir, “Open Book.”
“As Pee-wee Herman says in ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ before the movie of his life is about to play out at the end, he’s not watching the movie, and the reason he’s not watching the movie, he says, ‘I don’t have to watch it, Dottie, I lived it,'” Mayer told Cohen, per KVUE. “And I think that’s prescient here.”
And in a 2018 episode of Cohen’s Sirius XM show “Radio Andy,” guest Debbie Mazar dished to Cohen about her long and platonic “love affair” with Reubens, whom she described as her best friend.
Cohen also addressed Reubens’ past headline-making controversies, which included an arrest for indecent exposure in an adult movie theater in 1991. After Mazar said it was she who got Reubens to come out of the house after months of hiding, Cohen acknowledged “it was a different time” back then.
“Because he was really publicly shamed, and you know there also wasn’t kind of a scandal a day breaking out on Twitter,” the ‘Watch What Happens Live” host added.
Although he never had him as a guest on WWHL, Cohen did cross paths with Reubens on the “Today Show” set back in 2012, where they both posed with host Hoda Kotb.