Along with Bing Crosby, introduced the song "I'm an Old Cowhand (from the Rio Grande)" in the film Rhythm on the Range (1936).
During the Second World War, as part of cultural exchange program, Kinskey was choosing Hollywood movies for showing in the USSR.
He emigrated from Russia after the Communist Revolution of 1917, then worked in Europe, then came to Hollywood, and became a character actor, and eventually became a U.S. citizen.
He starred in "The Spot Lite Club" in 1948. The first situation comedy on TV (KTLA)
He was widowed twice before his marriage to Tina.
Kinskey married Iphigenie Castiglioni four times. 'It started in Mexico City, ' he said, 'and then over 20 years of our happy marriage we celebrated every five years by taking a new marriage licence in a different country.'
Leonid Kinskey was supposed to be one of the "heroes" of Hogan's Heroes. He is in the pilot episode only "The Informer." He decided not to be in the series because he didn't believe that one could have a comedy take place in a German P.O.W. camp.
When his acting career tailed off, Kinskey wrote and directed industrial films for major corporations.