Julian Sands’ remains identified: What were the British actor’s biggest film roles?

Until this week, there had been no news about British actor Julian Sands’s whereabouts for the past five months. The 65-year-old was reported missing by his family on 13 January and it was only on 24 June that they received the news that they had been dreading. Human remains were discovered in the San Gabriel mountains in southern California, where Sands had been hiking. The remains were taken to the was transported to the coroner’s office, where they were formally identified as being those of the Leeds-born actor.

As of the moment, the cause of death has not been disclosed but due to the harsh conditions in the snow-covered Mount Baldy area where Sands was believed to have set off to, it appears that he might have suffered an accident, possibly a fall. He leaves behind his widow, the American journalist Evgenia Citkowitz and their three children.

Sands realized his vocation was in theatre while he was still at school. He graduated from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and securing small parts in television and theatre productions (standing in for David Bowie no less, who was unavailable, in a Marianne Faithfull video shot by Derek Jarman), until getting his first big break in 1982 when he made his screen debut in the BBC drama ‘Play for Today’. That same year, he made his film debut, playing a sailor in the Michael Blakemore production Privates on Parade.

Work in the States

In 1984, he made an appearance in the NBC TV miniseries, The Sun Also Rises, an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway novel, alongside Leonard Nimoy, Jane Seymour and Robert Carradine which brought him to the attention of US audiences.

1985, the big break

Maybe it was that performance which led to him being cast as in the lead role of George Emerson opposite Helena Bonham Carter in Ivory-Merchant’s romantic adaptation of E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View. The film was hailed by critics and a box office success - it earned eight Oscar nominations, winning three (Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Costume Design). It also picked up awards and nominations at the Golden Globes, London Critics Circle Film Awards and BAFTAs.

Sands’ next major role was portraying poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in the 1986 psychological thriller Gothic, after which he relocated to the United States. Installed in Hollywood, he landed another lead horror role, starring as Warlock, the son of Satan in Steve Miner’s 1989 production. He followed that up with roles in Impromptu (1991), Naked Lunch (1991) and Arachnophobia (1990) before starring as fixated surgeon Nick Cavanaugh in Jennifer Lynch’s gruesome mystery-thriller, Boxing Helena. Another highlight was his role as Latvian pimp Yuri, cast alongside Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.