AllMovie

With a delicate face and set of hands that seemed to have been carved from soft porcelain, Lars Hanson was the silent era's archetypal Sensitive Swede. In films in his native country from 1913, Hanson gained international recognition for his wrenching portrayal of the title character in The Atonement of Gosta Berling (1923). At the request of actress Lillian Gish, Hanson was brought to America to play Reverend Dimmesdale opposite Gish's Hester Prynne in the 1926 film version of The Scarlet Letter. Hanson went on to appear with his Gosta Berling co-star Greta Garbo and Hollywood heartthrob John Gilbert in MGM's box-office bonanza Flesh and the Devil (1927). Leaving America just before the talkie revolution, Hanson continued to play leading roles in such British productions as Abdul the Damned (1935) and such Swedish films as Walpurgis Night (1935). Lars Hanson died in 1965, shortly after making a long-overdue return to films.