Julian Sands, ‘Room With a View’ Actor, Is Missing on Hike in California Mountains

The British actor Julian Sands, known for his role in the critically acclaimed 1986 film “A Room With a View,” among others, is one of two missing hikers the authorities are searching for in the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California following a period of heavy rain and snow across the area.

Mr. Sands, 65, of North Hollywood, was reported missing on Friday after hiking alone on a trail on Mount Baldy, more than 40 miles northeast of Los Angeles, Mara Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, said on Thursday. The trails there are popular but also labeled challenging and strenuous on hiking websites.

Search efforts had been affected by “trail conditions and the risk of avalanche,’’ Ms. Rodriguez said.

“However, we continue to search by helicopter and drones when weather permits,’’ she added.

Elsewhere in the San Gabriel Mountains, the authorities are searching separately for another missing hiker, Robert Gregory, 61, of Hawthorne, Calif. That search is being handled by the Hawthorne Police Department, supported by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office San Dimas station.

Mr. Gregory was reported missing on Friday evening by his wife after he had not returned that day in the Crystal Lake area. The police said his vehicle was found Saturday outside a cafe in front of a trail head in the area.

Lt. Louis Serrano of the San Dimas station said on Thursday that search and rescue teams were on the ground and that aerial patrols were continuing.

Representatives for Mr. Sands did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday.

A stream of atmospheric rivers, storms that are narrow in shape and carry a tremendous amount of water, have slammed much of California in recent weeks, causing flooding, power outages and widespread evacuations. At least 19 people have died.

On Friday, when Mr. Sands was reported missing, another round of storms was just beginning to sweep across Southern California, lasting through the holiday weekend.

By Wednesday, conditions had not improved and the sheriff’s office urged hikers to “think twice and heed warnings,” adding that rescue teams had responded to 14 rescue missions on Mount Baldy and the surrounding area in the last four weeks.

The rescue missions were for lost, stranded and injured hikers, two of whom did not survive after falling and injuring themselves, officials said. The recent storms brought snow and ice to the mountain, and conditions were not favorable for hikers, even those with experience, the authorities added.

Mr. Sands, a British performer who has appeared in more than 150 films and television shows, including “Arachnophobia,” “Naked Lunch,” “Warlock” and “Ocean’s Thirteen,” is known to enjoy the outdoors. He is best remembered for his starring role at 27 opposite Helena Bonham Carter in “A Room With a View,” the Oscar-nominated Merchant Ivory adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel, which often makes lists as one of the best British films of all time.

In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, Mr. Sands said he was happiest when close to a mountain summit on a cold morning and had aspirations of climbing a remote peak in the Himalayas. He also described a time in the early 1990s when he was caught in a storm above 20,000 feet in the Andes. “We were all in a very bad way,” he said. “Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky.”

In another interview that year with Thrive Global, a company started by Arianna Huffington that provides behavior change technology, Mr. Sands said that he had spent time in mountain ranges in North America and Europe.

Mr. Sands said that people who don’t climb mountains assume it’s about a “great heroic sprint” to the summit and an ego.

“But actually, it’s the reverse,” he said. “It’s about supplication and sacrifice and humility, when you go to these mountains. It’s not so much a celebration of oneself, but the eradication of one’s self consciousness. And so on these walks you lose yourself, you become a vessel of energy in harmony, hopefully with your environment.”