Einar Hansen on AllMovie

Discovered at Stockholm's Dramatic Theater by Finnish-born director Mauritz Stiller, who according to rumor had more than a professional relationship in mind, handsome and sophisticated Einar Hansen was ideally positioned in 1927 to take over from the late Rudolph Valentino as Hollywood's great screen lover. Had he not died tragically in a freak accident on Pacific Coast highway, Hansen, who showed great progress opposite Clara Bow in Children of Divorce (1927), may even have made the grade. Arriving in Hollywood in 1925 along with Stiller and the director's other protegée Greta Garbo, Hansen starred opposite some of the era's leading screen divas, including Pola Negri and the "Orchid Lady" herself, Corinne Griffith. Fan mail began pouring in and Hansen was promised bigger and better things to come by Paramount, who had bought his original five-year contract from Universal. Alas, it was not to be. The burgeoning star was on his way home from having dinner with Stiller and Garbo when his car apparently skidded off the road near Topanga Canyon. Pinned to the steering wheel in the overturned roadster, Hansen was discovered too late and died on the way to the hospital.