[1] According to one obituary, his "film career was cut to a familiar pattern: the young actor imported to Hollywood after a big success on Broadway begins by playing the handsome guy who gets the girl, then descends by gradual degrees to being the male lead in minor westerns and occasionally, in major films, being the handsome guy who does not get the girl because he lacks the spark of the hero who does.

[8] It was his work as Yank in the play The Hasty Heart (1945) that got him recognized by Hollywood[4] and led to a long-term film contract with Paramount Pictures.

He played Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara in Bride of Vengeance (1949) alongside Paulette Goddard and MacDonald Carey, following the suspension of Ray Milland;[18] the film was largely ill-received by critics.

Lund played the false love interest in Duchess of Idaho (1950) for MGM; the film featured Esther Williams and Van Johnson in the leads.

Brackett gave him another good role in The Mating Season (1951), alongside Gene Tierney, Miriam Hopkins, and Thelma Ritter.

[24] Lund left Paramount for Universal, where he was Ann Sheridan's leading man in Steel Town (1952), replacing Jeff Chandler.

He made a series of westerns: White Feather (1955), at Fox, second billed to Robert Wagner; Five Guns West (1955), the first film directed by Roger Corman, at ARC; Chief Crazy Horse (1955) with Victor Mature at Universal; and Dakota Incident (1956) with Linda Darnell at Republic.

Around this time he was also in a war film at Columbia, Battle Stations (1956), and he played Grace Kelly's fiancé George in MGM's High Society, the musical remake of The Philadelphia Story.