Born in West Yorkshire, Julian Sands is the third of five boys. Their parents, William and Brenda Sands, divorced, and the boys were then raised by their mother.
Julian Sands began acting in supporting in films such as Oxford Blues (1984) and The Killing Fields (1984) before garnering the lead role in the romance film A Room with a View (1985), starring opposite Helena Bonham Carter.
Soon after, he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Hollywood films, some of which include Steven Spielberg's 1990 horror film Arachnophobia, Leaving Las Vegas (1995) with Nicolas Cage and David Fincher's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011), starring Rooney Mara.
On television, he's played numerous roles, including terrorist Vladimir Bierko on 11 episodes of season five of 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland and eight episodes as William Jagger on the 2014 series Crossbones starring John Malkovich.
Julian has one son from his first marriage and two daughters from his current marriage to Guinness heiress Evgenia Citkowitz.