Julian Sands: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Julian Sands said elsewhere, not written here

In the early 90s, in the Andes, caught in an atrocious storm above 20,000ft with three others. We were all in a very bad way. Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 May 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

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Ronnie Wood English rock musician

I can dodge the bullets – I’m lucky.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 September 2017 source ↗

Suzanne Vega American singer-songwriter

A death threat at Glastonbury festival in 1989. The police told me not to go on, but I said I had to because I was headlining. So I wore a bullet-proof vest. It seemed unlikely that I would be assassinated, but it was shocking and very stressful.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 September 2017 source ↗

Roger Ebert Film critic

One of these days I will encounter what Henry James called on his deathbed “the distinguished thing.” I will not be conscious of the moment of passing. In this life I have already been declared dead. It wasn’t so bad. After the first ruptured artery, the doctors thought I was finished. My wife, Chaz, said she sensed that I was still alive and was communicating to her that I wasn’t finished yet. She said our hearts were beating in unison, although my heartbeat couldn’t be discovered. She told the doctors I was alive, they did what doctors do, and here I am, alive.

Recorded Salon, excerpted from Life Itself: A Memoir, 15 September 2011 source ↗

Sarah Millican English comedian