Lehrman was a very prominent figure of Hollywood's silent film era, working with such cinematic pioneers as D. W. Griffith and Mack Sennett.

He was the fiancé of the actress Virginia Rappe, for whose death Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (whom Lehrman had directed in about a dozen films in the early 1920s), in a highly publicized series of trials, was accused, and later acquitted, of manslaughter.

Born in Sambir,[2] Austria-Hungary (now Ukraine) or Vienna,[3] to Jewish parentage, Lehrman emigrated to the United States in 1908[3] or December 1906[2] and although he is best remembered as a film director, he began his career as an actor in a 1909 Biograph Studios production directed by D. W. Griffith.

While the executive may not have believed him, Biograph gave him his first acting work in film, appearing as one of many in a mob scene with another aspiring actor named Mack Sennett.

When Sennett left to found Keystone Studios, Henry Lehrman joined him, working as an actor, a screenwriter, and as the first director of Charlie Chaplin.

He directed two sound films for Fox in 1929, one a short comedy, the other a feature-length production titled New Year's Eve starring Mary Astor.