Paul Reubens Has Died — and His Greatest Scene Might Have Been in the Buffy Movie

Paul Reubens — Pee-wee Herman, beloved icon — died on July 30, 2023. He was 70 years old.

Among his many roles is one that the Buffy community holds in particular esteem: Amilyn, the vampire henchman in the 1992 Buffy the Vampire Slayer film. Amilyn loses an arm early in the story and spends the remainder of his screen time dying — in what became one of the most theatrical, joyful, and extended death scenes in the history of the genre. The sequence runs for nearly three minutes. It involves extraordinary commitment to moaning, writhing, and dramatic flailing, largely while the other characters go about their business around him.

Reubens reportedly improvised much of it. He committed entirely, for as long as the camera was rolling, to a joke that the film itself didn’t entirely deserve. It became the scene that people who saw the 1992 movie remember long after everything else has faded.

The original Buffy film is often treated as the rough draft — the version that existed before Joss Whedon got to remake it his way on television. But Reubens’ death scene transcends the film around it. It’s pure, joyful commitment to a bit, and it works completely.

Rest well, Paul.