Julian Sands confirmed dead after human remains identified as British actor

Human remains found in the San Gabriel mountains have been confirmed to be those of Julian Sands, authorities in Southern California have said.

The British actor, 65, had been missing for more than five months, after failing to return from a hike in the Mount Baldy area on January 13.

The remains were found in the same area on Saturday by hikers, with a coroner later confirming them to be those of the missing actor. The news was shared by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department department on Tuesday.

An extensive search was launched for Sands, who was an avid hiker, but it was hampered by poor wintry weather conditions that lasted through spring. It has not yet been determined how he died, authorities said.

Last week Sands’ family released a statement saying they were continuing to keep him “in our hearts with bright memories”.

(PA Archive)

“We are deeply grateful to the search teams and co-ordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” a family statement, issued on Wednesday by the sheriff’s department, read.

“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.”

Sands, who was born, raised and began acting in England and amassed more than 150 credits in a 40-year career in television and film. During a 10-year span from 1985 to 1995, he played major roles in a series of acclaimed films.

After studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, Sands embarked on a career in stage and film, playing small parts in films including Oxford Blues and The Killing Fields.

He landed the starring role of George Emerson, who falls in love with Lucy Honeychurch, played by Helena Bonham Carter, while on holiday in Tuscany, in A Room With a View.

(Merchant Ivory/Goldcrest/Kobal/Shutterstock)

The film from director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA) for best film, and was nominated for eight Oscars, winning three.

In the wake of its success, Sands moved to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood.

He played the title role in the 1989 horror fantasy Warlock and its sequel. In the 1990 horror comedy Arachnophobia, with Jeff Daniels and John Goodman, Sands played an entomologist specialising in spiders.

The following year he appeared in director David Cronenberg’s surreal adaptation of the William Burroughs novel Naked Lunch in 1991.

(Moviestore/Shutterstock)

In 1993, Sands starred in the thriller Boxing Helena, a movie that drew major media attention during production when Madonna and Kim Basinger each accepted the title role before backing out. The part would go to Twin Peaks actor Sherilyn Fenn.

Horror writer Anne Rice championed Sands to play the titular Lestat in the much-hyped 1994 Hollywood adaptation of her novel Interview With the Vampire, but the role would go to Tom Cruise.

In 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, Sands played an abusive Latvian pimp alongside Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue. The film was nominated for four Oscars, with Cage winning best actor.

Sands touted his love of the outdoors in a 2020 interview with The Guardian, saying he was happiest when “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning” and that his biggest dream was scaling “a remote peak in the high Himalayas, such as Makalu.”

(Touchstone)

The actor said in the interview that in the early 1990s, he was caught in an “atrocious” storm in the Andes and was lucky to survive when three others near his party didn’t.

After Leaving Las Vegas, the quality of the films Sands was cast in, and the size of his roles, began declining. He worked steadily, appearing in director Wim Wenders’ The Million Dollar Hotel and director Dario Argento’s The Phantom of the Opera.

He also appeared as a guest star or in recurring roles on TV series including 24, Medici, Smallville, Dexter, Gotham and Elementary. His final film was 2022’s The Ghosts of Monday.

Sands was born in Yorkshire, the middle child of five brothers raised by a single mother. He had three children of his own.

He had been married since 1990 to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, with whom he had two adult daughters, Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands.

His eldest child was son Henry Sands, whom he had with his first wife, journalist Sarah Harvey.

Addiitional reporting by Associated Press