Ludwig Barnay, born Ludwig Weiß (1842–1924) was a German actor, born at Pest. He made his debut in 1860 at Trutenau and appeared in Pest the following year, after which he had engagements of varying length in Graz, Mainz, Vienna, Prague, Riga, Leipzig, and Weimar.
In 1864 he married Marie Kreuzer, daughter of Heinrich Kreuzer, tenor at the Vienna Court Opera, und, after getting divorced in 1882, the actress Minnie Arndt [1].
From 1870 to 1875 he was at the Stadt-Theater of Frankfort-on-the-Main, and for the next five years at that of Hamburg, where he acted as director. He visited London in 1881 with the Meiningen Court Company. In 1882 he made a successful tour of the United States. From 1887 to 1894 he managed his Berliner Theater in Berlin, following which he made his home in Wiesbaden. Barnay's greatest talents were shown in tragedy. He excelled in rôles such as Essex, Uriel Acosta, Othello, Antony, Tell, and Egmont. He was the leader in the movement which assembled the stage congress at Weimar in 1871, thus being founder of the "Association" (Bühnengenossenschaft), which proved of such value to the German theatrical profession.