MOUNT BALDY—On Tuesday, June 27, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Department identified a body found in the Mount Baldy Wilderness area on Saturday, June 24, as 65-year-old British actor, Julian Sands. Sands – a North Hollywood resident – was best known for his roles as Jon Swain in the 1984 Oscar winning film, “The Killing Fields,” and for his role as George Emerson in the 1986 film “A Room With A View.”
Sands was reported missing back on Friday, January 13, after he went hiking in Mt. Baldy located in the San Gabriel Mountains. Search efforts for Sands – who was described as an experienced hiker and adventurer – were limited due to dangerous post-storm conditions. Ground crews were pulled off the mountains for safety precautions and the search crew relied heavily on helicopters and drones in the hopes to locate Sands.
Sands’ three children reportedly joined in the search efforts for their father, the Mirror reported.
Six months later, at around 10 a.m., hikers discovered human remains – later identified as Sands – in the Mt. Baldy Wilderness, Fontana Sheriff’s Station Detective Meeker said in a statement. Fontana Station deputies and the Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Operations Division responded to the scene and transported the body to the Coroner’s Office for identification.
“He was such a terrific storyteller, Jules, and so, so funny,” actor, best friend and godfather to Sand’s son, John Malkovich, told The Guardian. “Since the day we met, I could talk to him about anything, and he could talk to me about anything…[Sands] was an inveterate mountain climber/hiker,” Malkovich continues. “He was always tramping off to Kilimanjaro, or Antartica, or the Andes, or the Alps – a very experienced climber who’d been through very hairy experiences.”
Sands most recently starred alongside Malkovich in “Seneca – On the Creation of Earthquakes,” which premiered in theaters on March 23.
The cause of his death remains under investigation.
He is survived by his wife, Evgenia Citkowitz, and his three children Henry Sands, Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands.
