Julian Sands’ official cause of death declared ‘undetermined’

Julian Sands’s official cause of death has been declared “undetermined” by the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department on Monday 24 July.

The 65-year-old British actor’s remains were discovered in late June more than five months after he failed to return from a hike in California’s Mount Baldy region on 13 January.

Coroners have now officially ruled Sands’ cause of death as “undetermined”, police announced.

“The cause is ‘Undetermined’ due to the condition of the body and because no other factors were discovered during the coroner’s investigation, this is common when dealing with cases of this type. This is the final determination,” Mara Rodriguez, public information officer for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Coroner Department, told CNN in a statement on Monday.

An extensive search was launched for Sands, who was an avid hiker, but it was hampered by poor weather conditions that lasted through spring. It has not yet been determined how he died, authorities said.

A week before his remains were found, Sands’s family released a statement saying they were continuing to keep him “in our hearts with bright memories”.

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“We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” the statement, issued by the sheriff’s department, read.

“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.”

Throughout his life, Sands appeared in more than 150 films and TV series, including several Oscar winners.

The West Yorkshire-born actor began his career with supporting roles in projects such as 1984’s Oxford Blues and The Killing Fields, in which he played journalist Jon Swain.

Sands spent time with the real Swain in preparing for the role, later telling The Guardian: “I’d been cautioned by [director Roland Joffé] to keep my distance from John because he was an unstable character.

“And John had been told by Roland to stay away from me, because I was a refined, sensible person who didn’t want to be distracted. In fact, we bonded instantly. We were always quoting and misquoting Pinter to one another.”

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It was also on the set of The Killing Fields that Sands first met John Malkovich, an actor with whom he formed a firm and lifelong friendship.

Malkovich has described Sands as “a Tarzan” and “a physical entity of a physical force”.

“Julian is wild and never contained by rules or boundaries,” a close friend of Sands told The Independent after his disappearance. “He’s a Byronesque romantic and an adventurer drawn to the extremes of nature, relishing the freedom of mountains, which he conquers all over the world.”

In 1985, Sands was cast as the lead in the Merchant Ivory romance A Room with a View, opposite Helena Bonham Carter. The film received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, winning three.

Sands followed this with a role in Ken Russell’s Gothic, playing the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Around this time, Sands decided to move to the US. He has resided in California ever since, though has often returned to Europe for filming.

After moving to the States, Sands starred in a number of prominent films, including 1989’s supernatural horror Warlock (and its 1993 sequel, Warlock: The Armageddon), period drama Impromptu (1991), horror-comedy Arachnophobia (1990), and the 1991 adaptation of William S Burroughs’ Naked Lunch.

In 1995, Sands starred in a supporting role in Leaving Las Vegas, alongside Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, winning a Golden Globe for his efforts.

His later projects include a role alongside Jackie Chan in 2003’s The Medallion, and a supporting part in David Fincher’s 2011 adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

He is survived by his wife, the writer Evgenia Citkowitz, and their two sons; and another son, Henry, whom he shares with his first wife, journalist and editor Sarah Sands (née Harvey).