Human remains found in mountains identified as belonging to actor Julian Sands

Missing artist found dead

An autopsy has confirmed that a body found in a wilderness near Mount Baldy in California on Saturday belongs to prominent British actor Julian Sands, who went missing earlier this year.

Julian Sands’ death confirmed after identification of human remains, writes The Guardian. The body was taken to the coroner’s office for identification, and yesterday the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department announced in a statement: “The process of identification of the body is completed,” and the examination positively identified the remains as those of 65-year-old Julian Sands.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department coordinated the search for the actor, who was reported missing in the San Gabriel Mountains on January 13. Bad weather hampered rescue efforts trying to find Sands, hindering ground searches for long periods. Last week, the sheriff’s office said they were winding down the search after a renewed effort involving more than 80 people on June 17 proved unsuccessful.

A few days later, the Sands family issued their first statement in four months, saying they are “deeply grateful” to the search teams and that they continue to hold the actor “in our hearts” with fond memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover nature and other people. art, but also as an original performer collaborating with others.”

John Malkovich, a friend of Sands for 40 years after meeting on the set of The Killing Fields in 1983, paid tribute to him as Seneca in the movie Earthquakes they made together, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Malkovich said: “I love Jules. He was very, very smart… It’s a big loss.” He added: “He was such an amazing storyteller…and so, so funny. From the day we met, I could talk to him about anything and he could talk to me about anything.”

Born in 1958, Sands has developed a reputation as a fearless and eccentric actor who loves the outdoors as much as he loves performing. “I was looking for something exotic, things that pissed me off,” he told The Guardian in 2018. 00 I think I found myself a little boring.”

Sands could have made a name for himself playing Lord Greystoke – aka Tarzan – in the 1980s after being a leading contender for the central role, but Christopher Lambert was eventually cast. Instead, Sands made his breakthrough playing photographer John Swain in the Oscar-winning epic The Killing Fields in 1984 and uninhibitedly playing Helena Bonham Carter’s love interest George Emerson in Em Forster’s 1986 adaptation of A Room with a View. Subsequently, he solidified his fame with the role of Percy Shelley in Ken Russell’s Mad Literary Horror Gothic.

Sands then moved to Los Angeles, but, by his own admission, “didn’t want to be a Hollywood actor.” His choice of roles was unconventional by any measure: he starred in the satanic horror film The Warlock, played the werewolf alien Yves Cloquet in David Cronenberg’s phantasmagoric film Naked Lunch, and an amputee surgeon in Jennifer Lynch’s controversial film Elena Box. Guardian.

More traditional films followed: Julian Sands played a spider scientist in the hit thriller Arachnophobia, and collaborations with British director Mike Figgis led to roles in Browning’s version (as a teacher) and Leaving Las Vegas (somewhat implausibly as cruel Eastern European pimp). However, Sands clearly preferred to work outside the mainstream, joining Figgis on more experimental projects (Loss of Sexual Innocence, Timecode) and starring in Dario Argento’s 1998 horror film The Phantom of the Opera.

In his subsequent career, he followed a remarkably eclectic path, from small roles in Ocean’s Thirteen and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the horrific Czech military epic The Painted Bird and his most recent acclaimed role in Siegfried Sassoon’s biopic The Blessing, recalls The Guardian.

Sands’ love of mountain climbing and hiking was well known, and he told The Guardian he was happiest when he was “close to a mountaintop on a glorious cold morning.” He was married twice: in 1984-87 to journalist Sarah Sands, and in 1990 to journalist Eugenia Sitkovits.