Paul Weigel

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Paul Weigel with Lila Leslie (1921)

Paul Weigel (born February 18, 1867 in Halle an der Saale , † May 25, 1951 in Los Angeles , California ) was a German-American theater and film actor.

life and career

Paul Weigel was born in Halle and grew up in the German Empire . In adulthood, he moved to the United States, where he first appeared as a comedian on vaudeville shows. In 1916, when he was almost 50 years old, he made his film debut in Hollywood. During the 1920s in particular, he was successful as an actor in comic and paternal supporting roles. Despite his German accent, Weigel managed to switch from silent films to talkies at the end of the 1920s. He stayed busy, but now mostly had to switch to smaller roles. In 1931 he played in several German-language films that were produced in Hollywood for the German cinema audience. Weigel embodied his most famous roles as the optimistic philanthropist Brother Paul in the silent film comedy Um Himmelswillen (1926) alongside Harold Lloyd and as a Jewish ghetto resident Mr. Agar in Charlie Chaplin's classic film The Great Dictator (1940).

After almost 130 films, Paul Weigel retired from the film business in 1945; he died six years later in Los Angeles at the age of 84.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Weigel, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale) , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1951
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States