Lars Hanson

Biography

Gothenburg greeted the arrival of Lars Hanson on 26 July 1886, and the stage and screen would never forget him. With a gaze that silenced rooms, he steered the preachy seaman of *Captain Salvation* (1927) through storm-tossed moral reefs, lived a thousand reckless dreams as the defrocked priest in *The Saga of Gösta Berling* (1924), and lit Garbo’s cigarette with mythic longing in *The Divine Woman* (1928). Off-camera, his leading lady was Karin Molander, the woman who became his lifelong co-star. Stockholm drew the curtain on 8 April 1965, but the reels still spin, keeping Hanson forever in motion.