Though born in Germany, Paul Weigel generally played French and Spanish aristocrats during the silent era. Active in films from 1917 to 1943, Weigel spent most of the talkie era portraying kindly ministers. Every so often he would show up in a comedy, notably the 1925 Our Gang two-reeler Boys Will Be Joys. Paul Weigel's best-remembered talkie assignment was the philosophical Jewish ghetto-dweller Mr. Agar in Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940).