Complicating matters, there have been many legends and rumours concerning Birinski's person, including the false report of his "suicide" in 1920 that found its way from newspaper obituaries into encyclopedias.

The circumstances of Birinski's early life are unclear, as; different sources offer a variety of possibilities for his place and date of birth.

He occasionally presented this information in official documents, though it is impossible to confirm because the local birth records for Lysianka were not preserved.

His father, Hersch Gottesmann, was born in Borschiv in eastern Galicia and was a salesman (he indicated "Agent" as his employment in registration forms).

Birinski spent his childhood in Ukraine and Czernowitz, the capital city of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bukovina.

In March 1920, a rumor of suicide, caused by a case of mistaken identity with a man named Leon Gottesmann, was spread in the local newspapers.

At this time, he worked primarily for the film industry, wrote many screenplays, and together with Paul Leni, directed the motion picture Das Wachsfigurenkabinett.

During his time in Germany, he contributed to the screenplays of thirteen films, including Tragedy of Love with Marlene Dietrich, Varieté by Ewald André Dupont, and several pictures by Gennaro Righelli.

In addition to these works, a manuscript of a stage play, The Holy Devil (Rasputin), by Birinski was found among the papers left by Herman Bernstein, a journalist and writer who died in August 1935.

According to his death certificate, Leo Birinski died on October 23, 1951, at Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx, New York City.