German film actor
Father of Marga Legal.
Balding character actor, in films from 1920. Also a noted theatrical director/manager (including at the Berlin Schiller Theater from 1938-44). In 1945, he assumed the directorship of the German State Opera for seven years and presided over the Deutschen Theater in East Berlin from 1947 to 1951.
When Germany was divided into two parts he was working in the new GDR from now on. Besides his activity at the German Theater and at the German Staatsoper he continued acting in movies.
He became a popular support actor in the 30s whose striking face formed many roles effectively.
The actor Ernst Legal was an important personality at the theater where he besides his activity as a director also was a theater manager.
Among others he worked in Darmstadt from 1924 to 1927, at the Schiller-Theater from 1938 to 1944, and after the war he was the director at the German Staatsoper from 1945 to 1952 as well as at the German Theater Berlin from 1947 to 1951 in the new founded GDR. With it he played an important role for the culture life of this young country.
