John Malkovich Remembers Best Friend Julian Sands

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Hollywood actor John Malkovich, a close friend of Sands, has expressed his deep sorrow over the disappearance of 65-year-old British film star Julian Sands. Sands starred alongside Malkovich in the recent film "Seneca," which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

Malkovich's Tribute to a Close Friend

In a statement for The Guardian, Malkovich said, “I love Jules. He was someone who was very, very clever. I know his ex-wife, Sarah [Sands, the former editor of the Evening Standard and Radio 4’s Today], terribly well and their son, Henry, is my godson.

And I introduced Jules to Evgenia [his wife, also a journalist], who’s an old, old friend. I know their daughters [Natalya and Imogen] well. But I unfortunately never got to go up to Yorkshire with him. It’s a great loss”.

The Disappearance of Julian Sands

British actor Julian Sands, known for his starring roles in films such as "A Room with a View" and "Warlock," went missing in the mountains of Southern California in January. The 65-year-old actor was reported missing by his wife after he went hiking in the Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel Mountains.

Malkovich is reassured that Sands was last seen doing what he loved, “I haven’t really talked about what happened with Jules,” he says. “But, in a way, it’s a choice, because he was an inveterate mountain climber/hiker.

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”.

Solo Adventures and a Love for the Wild

Sands was known to go on solo adventures, a trait that Malkovich believes was a part of Sands' wild and adventurous spirit, “which is quite wild in itself, but he’s a boy who grew up wild on the moors and – despite being someone who could be incredibly erudite and polished – had always kept that wild part of himself”.

No trace of Sands has been found, but Malkovich believes that the conditions on Mount Baldy that day may have led to some sort of catastrophic error. “I suppose the particular conditions on the ground that day on Mount Baldy must have led to some sort of catastrophic and immediate error that was irreversible.

That was my instinct upon hearing it. But he knew what the conditions were, and that’s what he loved to do. He found great solace in the solitude of that”. Born in England, Sands moved to California in the 1980s to pursue a Hollywood career following the success of 1985's A Room with a View. He went on to star in films such as "The Killing Fields", "Arachnophobia" and "Leaving Las Vegas."