Remains found in California mountain area identified as actor Julian Sands

(KTLA) – Authorities have confirmed that remains found in a mountainous area of Southern California are those of actor Julian Sands, who disappeared in January.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department made the announcement Tuesday. Sands’ remains were found by hikers over the weekend in the Mount Baldy Wilderness Area.

“The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24 has been completed and was positively identified as 65-year-old Julian Sands of North Hollywood. The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results,” the department added in a news release. “We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.”

The remains were found just days after a large search effort for the “Room with a View” and “Warlock” actor – including over 80 Search and Rescue volunteers, San Bernardino County deputies and staff – ended in disappointment.

It has not yet been determined how he died, authorities said.

“We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” his family said last Wednesday in their first statement since Sands disappeared. “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.”

The British actor had been missing since January after he went missing while hiking in the region. Initial search efforts for Sands were hampered by deep snow and the risk of avalanches. Two other hikers were also found dead in the Mt. Baldy area shortly before Sands went missing. 

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

More recently, Sands lived in North Hollywood.

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 Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch while on holiday in Tuscany, in the 1985 British romance, “A Room With a View.”

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 specializing in spiders.

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

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. The film flopped.

Author 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.”

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.”

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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.