section_path: Early life and education
section_name: Early life and education
paragraph_text: Early life and education
  
  Reubens was born Paul Rubenfeld in Peekskill, New York, on August 27, 1952, and grew up in a Jewish family, where his parents, Judy (née Rosen) and Milton Rubenfeld, owned a lamp store. His mother was a teacher. His father was an automobile salesperson who had flown for Britain's Royal Air Force and for the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, and later became one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. An Orthodox Jew, he was one of five Jewish pilots to fly against Arab forces in smuggled fighter planes.
  
  Reubens's two younger siblings are Luke (born 1958), who is a dog trainer, and Abby (born 1953), who is an attorney and a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
  
  Reubens spent his early childhood in Oneonta, New York before moving with his parents to Sarasota, Florida at the age of nine. As a child, he frequented the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, whose winter headquarters were in Sarasota. The circus atmosphere sparked Reubens's interest in entertainment and influenced his later work. He also loved to watch reruns of I Love Lucy, which made him want to make people laugh. At age five, Reubens asked his father to build him a stage where he and his siblings would act out plays.
  
  Reubens attended Sarasota High School, where he was named president of the National Thespian Society. He was accepted into Northwestern University 's summer program for gifted high-school students, joined the local Asolo Theater, Players of Sarasota Theater, and appeared in several plays.
  
  After high school graduation, he attended Plymouth State University for one semester. He then attended Boston University. When he began auditioning for acting schools, he was turned down by the Juilliard School and Carnegie Mellon University. Reubens was accepted at the California Institute of the Arts, where he graduated with a BFA in Theatre in 1973. As a student, Reubens was described by The New Yorker as "the wildest of a wild bunch". He acted in a student film in Cher -inspired mermaid drag and kissed all of his classmates at a Valentine's Day kissing booth. Some of his CalArts classmates included Katey Sagal, Michael Richards and David Hasselhoff, who was his roommate for a time. Sagal described Reubens as her "fantastically colorful best buddy" down the hall from her in the dorm, who would listen to her play music on the piano. She recalled that Reubens's dorm room was like a real-life Pee-wee's Playhouse. "He was the only one with a decorated dorm room, everyone else had posters with Scotch tape, and you'd go to his room and it was a party." After graduating, his early jobs in California included working in restaurant kitchens and as a Fuller Brush salesman.
  
  Reubens was born Paul Rubenfeld in Peekskill, New York, on August 27, 1952, and grew up in a Jewish family, where his parents, Judy (née Rosen) and Milton Rubenfeld, owned a lamp store. His mother was a teacher. His father was an automobile salesperson who had flown for Britain's Royal Air Force and for the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, and later became one of the founding pilots of the Israeli Air Force during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. An Orthodox Jew, he was one of five Jewish pilots to fly against Arab forces in smuggled fighter planes.
  
  Reubens's two younger siblings are Luke (born 1958), who is a dog trainer, and Abby (born 1953), who is an attorney and a board member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee.
  
  Reubens spent his early childhood in Oneonta, New York before moving with his parents to Sarasota, Florida at the age of nine. As a child, he frequented the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, whose winter headquarters were in Sarasota. The circus atmosphere sparked Reubens's interest in entertainment and influenced his later work. He also loved to watch reruns of I Love Lucy, which made him want to make people laugh. At age five, Reubens asked his father to build him a stage where he and his siblings would act out plays.
  
  Reubens attended Sarasota High School, where he was named president of the National Thespian Society. He was accepted into Northwestern University 's summer program for gifted high-school students, joined the local Asolo Theater, Players of Sarasota Theater, and appeared in several plays.
  
  After high school graduation, he attended Plymouth State University for one semester. He then attended Boston University. When he began auditioning for acting schools, he was turned down by the Juilliard School and Carnegie Mellon University. Reubens was accepted at the California Institute of the Arts, where he graduated with a BFA in Theatre in 1973. As a student, Reubens was described by The New Yorker as "the wildest of a wild bunch". He acted in a student film in Cher -inspired mermaid drag and kissed all of his classmates at a Valentine's Day kissing booth. Some of his CalArts classmates included Katey Sagal, Michael Richards and David Hasselhoff, who was his roommate for a time. Sagal described Reubens as her "fantastically colorful best buddy" down the hall from her in the dorm, who would listen to her play music on the piano. She recalled that Reubens's dorm room was like a real-life Pee-wee's Playhouse. "He was the only one with a decorated dorm room, everyone else had posters with Scotch tape, and you'd go to his room and it was a party." After graduating, his early jobs in California included working in restaurant kitchens and as a Fuller Brush salesman.