Leo Birinski

Who was Leo Birinski?

Leo Birinski was a playwright, screenwriter and director. He worked in Austria-Hungary, Germany and in the United States. As a playwright in Europe he gained his biggest popularity in 1910 – 1917, then he was forgotten. From the 1920s to 1940s he worked mainly as a screenwriter, first in Germany, later in the USA. In the USA he returned to writing the stage plays. He was writing in German and later on in the USA in English. Until recently, only a minimal amount of information about his life was available. In addition there were many legends and rumours concerning Birinski's person, some of them even spread by himself. For example the false report of his "suicide" in 1920 even found its way from the newspaper obituaries into encyclopedias.