John Kliegl was born in Bavaria in 1869. His brother, Anton, was born in 1872. Both brothers migrated to the United States.

Their first jobs in America were with a stage lighting company in New York. Within a few years they had saved enough to buy out their employer and start their own company.

In 1896, they launched the Kliegl Brothers Universal Electric Stage Lighting Company. They didn't simply sell theatrical equipment. They also designed it. They were responsible for many innovative scenic effects for the stage and for the new motion picture industry.

Of their designs, the one that had the greatest impact on the cinematic world was a bright carbon arc lamp that allowed directors to make night appear to be day, and to make every day sufficiently bright. The light was called a Kliegl light, and later a klieg light.

The Kliegl brothers were said to have been responsible for one enduring Hollywood custom. The brightness of the lamps caused actors to have painful eye problems, which they dubbed klieg eye. According to the book Inventive Genius, "Actors forced to work under the bright lamps created a Hollywood trademark as famous as the Kliegl brothers' invention: the perpetual wearing of sunglasses."