Son joins mountain hunt for missing actor Sands
THE son of missing British actor Julian Sands has flown to California to help in the search for his father.
Sands, a father of three, has been missing for a week after he went walking in the San Gabriel mountains. He is an experienced hiker and had trekked there before.
But his family reported him missing at around 7.30pm last Friday when he failed to return to his Los Angeles home.
The 65-year- old has starred in several Oscar-nominated films including A Room with a View and The Killing Fields, as well as hit television series 24 and Smallville.
Officers abandoned a ground search for him last Saturday when a storm swept in. It has not been safe to send rescue teams back out since.
Instead, helicopters and drones have been used to search for Sands in the mountainous area just 40 miles from the centre of Los Angeles, where he has lived since 2020. Sands has two daughters with US journalist evgenia Citkowitz, who he married in 1990, and a son, Henry, with his first wife Sarah Sands, the former editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Henry, who runs his own communications business, has flown from London to assist with the search. The 37 year old, also an experienced hiker, attempted to retrace his father’s steps on Tuesday but was forced to stop due to the hostile weather.
A source close to the family said: ‘Henry is taking a very practical approach. I think it was just instinct for him to fly out when he heard his father was missing.’ It is unclear if the actor was alone or with a partner.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said its search and rescue team has been called out to 14 incidents in the last four weeks. It urged hikers to think twice before walking the trails amid ‘extremely dangerous’ conditions.