- Julian Sands — the actor known for his roles in films like A Room With A View, Warlock, Naked Lunch, and Leaving Las Vegas — was married twice.
- He was married to Sarah Sands (née Harvey) from 1984-87 and to Evgenia Citkowitz from 1990 to his death.
- Sands disappeared on California’s Mount Baldy in January 2023. His remains were identified five months later.
The world sadly learned the fate of Julian Sands on Jun. 27, when the San Bernadino Sheriff’s positively identified the remains discovered on Mt. Baldy as the 65-year-old actor. The manner of the A Room With A View actor’s death is still undisclosed, but what is known is that Julian leaves behind a heartbroken family, including his wife, Evgenia Citkowitz, and his ex-wife, Sarah Sands. Both women share children with Julian, and
Julian was an avid mountaineer who went missing while traversing the Southern California mountains in January. At the start of the year, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department warned hikers about visiting Mt. Baldy due to the season’s high winds and that ice had made trails treacherous.
Days before the department confirmed Julian’s death, his family issued a statement. “We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” the family wrote in a statement posted by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office. “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.”
On July 24, Julian’s cause of death was officially ruled as “undetermined,” according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. As the world continues to mourn the distinctive actor, here’s what we know about his past marriages.
Sarah Sands
Sarah Sands (née Harvey, b. May 3, 1961) is a British journalist. Sarah married Julian in 1984. The couple welcomed a son, Henry, shortly after. After A Room With A View made him famous, his marriage fell apart, and the couple divorced in 1987.
Sarah is respected in the world of journalism. She worked as the editor of the London Evening Standard from 2012 to 2017. Before that, she was the editor of The Sunday Telegraph. In 2017, she became the editor of BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“Sarah is a hugely experienced and highly respected journalist,” wrote James Harding, the then-director of the BBC News and Current Affairs desk, in an email to staff. “She will bring her familiar verve and her broad range of interests to the program and will build on Today’s absolute commitment to critical and analytical journalism.”
In 2020, she resigned from the post after the BBC announced major cuts to its news output, per The Guardian. “I have decided that September is a good time to move on and pass this job to someone else,” she wrote in an email to staff. “I loved Radio 4 as a listener, I loved it even more as a member of the team. But I come from a different world, and I was never going to be a lifer. I am so proud of what we have achieved, championing intelligent broadcasting and political independence under constant pressure.
“I have witnessed not only extraordinary professionalism and quick-witted determination here but also a heart-warming consideration towards one another,” she added. “The Today program is a beacon of news journalism. It was, is, and will always be the most precious program at the BBC.”
In 2022, Sarah was appointed as the new Deputy Chair of the British Council, an organization aimed at “support[ing] peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.”
Evgenia Citkowitz
After Julian split from Sarah, his friend John Malkovich, who first met Sands on the set of The Killing Fields, helped his friend out. Sands moved in with Malkovich, who volunteered to be Julian’s nanny during this time, per The Guardian. “The gig lasted only six weeks thanks to a dispute over a broken washing machine,” wrote Amy Nicholson for The Guardian, “though neither claims to remember the details, but then Malkovich introduced Sands to the writer Evgenia Citkowitz, whom he married in 1990.”
Evgenia (born in 1964) is the daughter of American pianist/composer Israel Citkowitz and Lady Caroline Blackwood, a British writer. Evgenia herself is a playwright and an author, having written novels Ether and The Shades. She is also reportedly an heiress to the Guinness beer fortune. She and Julian had two daughters together. They were both fiercely protective of their private lives and rarely spoke about their personal matters in interviews.
Julian and Evgenia remained married until he died in 2023. In 2020, he revealed to The Guardian that “a closeup of my wife Evgenia’s right eye” was his phone’s wallpaper. “It’s always on me.”