German actor
German leading actor, the son of an economist. He was trained at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and first acted on stage in Wiesbaden and Munich. In films from 1929, he played the occasional romantic lead but specialised primarily in dignified, gentlemanly roles, as diplomats, landowners or physicians. Also often as prominent authority figures (Kaiser Friederich III, Lord Melbourne, Generaloberst Ludwig Beck).
In 1939 he was appointed to a states actor.
He continued impersonating successful characters till the end of war.
He was married since 1930 to Mary von Ruffin (1909-2002), sister of actor Kurt von Ruffin and father of 2 daughters.
The actor Karl Ludwig Diehl took acting lessons after his examination but his ambitions were put aside for the time being because of the World War I.
He attended the acting school of the German theater in Berlin in 1919 and got first engagements in Wiesbaden and Munich.
He became one of the most popular German actors in the 30s and was convincing in noble roles of lords of the manor, doctors and diplomats.
In the destroyed post-war Germany he found work at theaters for the present.
