Julian Sands' Cause of Death Will Never Be Known

UPDATE Jul 25, 2023 12:30 AM CDT

Julian Sands' cause of death will never be officially known after the UK actor was found dead months after going missing during a hike in the California mountains. "The cause is 'Undetermined' due to the condition of the body and because no other factors were discovered during the coroner's investigation," the public information officer for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Coroner Department told CNN in a statement Monday. "This is common when dealing with cases of this type. This is the final determination."

Jul 4, 2023 1:20 PM CDT

It might be a little solace for fans of the late Julian Sands: In his last UK interview, the then-64-year-old actor didn't just acknowledge the dangers of climbing in the mountains, he embraced them. "If you can deal with dangerous mountains, you can certainly deal with life as an actor," he told Radio Times last year, per CNN. "The two are quite complementary." Sands disappeared in the mountains of California while on a hike in January, and his remains were discovered last month.

"I've found spooky things on mountains, when you know you're in a place where many people have lost their lives," Sands told the UK outlet last year. "You may be confronted with human remains and that can be chilling." But the risk appeared to make him only more inclined to keep climbing, which he described as "solace and a sort of existentialist self-negation, but equally a self-affirmation," per Variety. He also said that many of his climbing peers had quit because of age, noting, "If you don't really have the desire, the focus for climbing a route, if you're not absolutely committed, it becomes much more dangerous." (More Julian Sands stories.)