[2] While already a well established popular actor in Sweden and much of continental Europe, Lars Hanson gained greater international recognition for his role as the title character in the 1923 Stiller film Gösta Berlings saga (English: The Story of Gösta Berling), which featured a young Mauritz Stiller protégée named Greta Garbo in one of her first major appearances on screen as well as film stage actress Gerda Lundequist.

[citation needed] Hanson's Hollywood career as an actor steadily grew momentum during the 1920s and he was paired with Greta Garbo in two more motion pictures; MGM's 1927 box-office hit Flesh and the Devil, which also starred Garbo's offscreen lover, the successful film actor John Gilbert, and 1928's The Divine Woman, again directed by Victor Sjöström.

Upon arriving back in Europe in 1928, Hanson starred in the aptly titled German film Heimkehr (English: Homecoming) opposite Gustav Fröhlich and Dita Parlo.

In Sweden, Hanson balanced his film work with an outstanding stage career, making memorable appearances in A Dream Play (1935), The Ghost Sonata (1942), and as James Tyrone in the world premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night (1956).

In 1956, Hanson, along with actress Inga Tidblad (who played Mary Tyrone) also became the first two actors to receive The Eugene O'Neill Award; today known as Sweden's most prestigious theatre award and presented annually to the country's most outstanding stage actors.