Julian Sands Dead At 65: ‘Smallville’ & ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ Actor’s Body Found Near Mount Baldy, Sheriff Confirms

Tom Tapp
·4 min read
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After six months of searching, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office confirmed today that the human remains found earlier this week by hikers were, indeed, those of actor Julian Sands. He had been missing since mid-January.

The statement (read it below) says his cause of death is still pending, but Sands was an experienced hiker who loved the outdoors.

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The positive identification comes less than a week after Sands’ family issued their first statement on the matter, saying they are “deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian.”

Of the actor himself — known for his roles in The Killing Fields, A Room with a View, Leaving Las Vegas, Warlock, Arachnophobia, Boxing Helena, 24, Smallville and Banshee — the family statement said, “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.”

RELATED: Remembering Julian Sands: A TV & Film Career In Photos

Sands disappeared in mid-January near Mount Baldy, which lies in the San Gabriel Mountains less than 50 miles northeast of Los Angeles. It is one of the highest peaks in the region, at over 11,000 feet. While close to the country’s second-largest metropolis, the area’s steep terrain and ravines make portions of it difficult to access, especially in winter, when Sands disappeared. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office said earlier this month that some parts of the wilderness were still covered in 10 feet of snow.

The search for Sands had been suspended temporarily because of the severe winter conditions across Western U.S. this spring. San Bernardino sheriffs said they had conducted eight searches to find the British actor, an experienced outdoorsman, along with eight other operations.

The efforts picked up again last Saturday. Officials said more than 80 search and rescue volunteers, deputies and staff participated in the search that took place Saturday in the nearby wilderness and remote areas across the mountain. The effort included two helicopters and drone crews.

Born on January 4, 1958, in West Yorkshire, Sands began his film career in 1984, appearing in Oxford Blues and Best Picture Oscar nominee The Killing Fields. His breakthrough was being cast as the romantic lead in 1985’s A Room with a View, playing the charming George Emerson alongside Helena Bonham Carter. That was his springboard to Hollywood, where he moved in search of larger roles.

Sands was the title character in the 1989 film Warlock and its 1993 sequel, Warlock: The Armageddon. His other film appearances included playing Franz Liszt in Impromptu, Naked Lunch, Arachnophobia, Boxing Helena, and Leaving Las Vegas, opposite Nicolas Cage, who won the Best Actor Oscar for the pic. Sands also played the Phantom in the 1998 horror-film version of The Phantom of the Opera, then switched gears to star opposite Jackie Chan in the 2003 action-comedy The Medallion.

In television, among his more prominent roles was as the voice of Valmont in the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon in its first two seasons; the Doci of the Ori in two episodes of Stargate SG-1 — a role he reprised in the 2008 film Stargate: The Ark of Truth — and appearing in the 2006 season of 24 as playing terrorist Vladimir Bierko, and as Superboy’s Kryptonian father, Jor-el, in Smallville.

Sands appeared in several smaller films as late as 2021, two of the titles going direct-to-video.

Survivors include his wife, journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, whom he married in 1990; their daughters Imogen Morley Sands and Natalya Morley Sands; and a son, Henry Sands, with his ex-wife journalist Sarah Sands.

No memorial plans have been announced.

Here is the full statement from the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office:

The identification process for the body located on Mt. Baldy on June 24, 2023, 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.

We would like to extend our gratitude to all the volunteers that worked tirelessly to locate Mr. Sands.

On Saturday, June 24, 2023, at about 10:00 a.m., civilian hikers contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station after they discovered human remains in the Mount Baldy wilderness. Fontana Station deputies, along with the Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Operations Division, responded to the scene.  The decedent was transported to the Coroner’s Office, pending positive identification.  Identification should be completed next week at which time we will update this press release.  No further details are available at this time.

Erik Pedersen and Bruce Haring contributed to this report.

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