The 65-year-old performer was reported missing by his wife on Friday after he had gone hiking in the Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel Mountains, according to Los Angeles television station KABC-TV and the Hollywood trade publication Variety.
"From what I understand, he left sometime that day for a hike and when he did not return, his family reported him missing," KABC-TV quoted Gloria Huerta, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, as telling the news outlet on Wednesday.
Ground teams immediately launched a search but the effort was called off about 24 hours later due to avalanche risks and poor trail conditions, according to Variety, which also cited the sheriff's department.
Intermittent aerial searches by helicopter and drone aircraft have continued, however, and authorities planned to resume a ground search once conditions allow, Variety said.
Sands' Los Angeles-based representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Born in England, Sands moved to California in the 1980s to pursue a Hollywood career after the success of the 1985 film A Room With A View, a period romance in which he was cast as the leading man opposite Helena Bonham Carter.
He also starred as the son of Satan in the 1989 supernatural thriller Warlock and its sequel Warlock: The Armageddon.Â
Other film credits include supporting roles in The Killing Fields, Arachnophobia and "Leaving Las Vegas.
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