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Actor Julian Sands, who died in a California mountain range, said in his last UK interview that many friends had stopped going mountaineering partly because it had become too dangerous.

The British star's body was found last week, six months after he went missing.

Speaking to Radio Times late last year, he said: "Pals I used to climb with have stopped going to the mountains".

He said that was "partly because they find, with climate change, the rock faces have become much more unstable".

Also, "partly, it's age", he told the magazine.

Sands, who was 64 at the time, said those friends no longer wanted to dedicate themselves to a climb.

"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 and it's a much more deflating experience," he said.

"Finding folk whose company I enjoy in such stressful and intimate conditions is not easy."

Sands, best known for the 1985 film A Room With A View, went missing on a solo trip to Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains, near Los Angeles, on 13 January.

Wintry conditions hampered the search efforts, and hikers found human remains on 24 June. They were later identified to belong to Sands.

He spoke to Radio Times to promote The Willows, a ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio drama that was broadcast over Christmas.

He said he knew the risks of being on mountains, and was often aware of being present in places where people had lost their lives in the past.

He said: "If you can deal with dangerous mountains, you can certainly deal with life as an actor - the two are quite complementary."