Elke Sommer, a prolific German actress who achieved significant success in Hollywood and English-language cinema during the 1960s and 70s, has died at the age of 85. According to reports from Bild magazine, Sommer passed away in Los Angeles from heart failure. She was best known for her performances in the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark, the 1974 Agatha Christie adaptation And Then There Were None, and the British sex comedy Carry on Behind.
Born Elke Schletz in Berlin in 1940 to a Protestant pastor, Sommer was evacuated with her family to Bavaria during World War II. Originally intending to work as an interpreter, she was discovered by Italian director Vittorio De Sica after winning a beauty contest in Italy in 1958. This led to roles in several Italian comedies before she transitioned to more serious work in the West German drama The Death Ship, starring alongside Horst Buchholz.
Leveraging her natural gift for languages, Sommer made her English-language film debut in the 1961 British comedy Don't Bother to Knock. She was subsequently billed as one of the "six most exciting women in the world" in Carl Foreman's 1963 war fable The Victors. Her breakthrough in Hollywood arrived that same year with The Prize, an adaptation of Irving Wallace's novel where she played Paul Newman's lover. For this role, she shared a Golden Globe award for most promising newcomer.
Sommer's career accelerated with A Shot in the Dark, where she embraced a "sexpot" image as a maid suspected of murder in the sequel to The Pink Panther, starring opposite Peter Sellers. Following this success, she appeared in numerous high-profile films including The Art of Love with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke, The Oscar with Stephen Boyd, and the Bob Hope comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!. In 1968, she achieved leading actor status in The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, a comedy about an East German athlete who pole-vaults over the Berlin Wall.
During the 1970s, Sommer starred in cult horror films by Mario Bava, such as Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil, alongside British sex comedies Percy and Percy's Progress directed by Ralph Thomas. She also took on prominent roles in two major British productions: as secretary Vera Clyde in And Then There Were None in 1974, and in Carry on Behind, the 27th entry in the Carry On series, the following year.
After appearing in another film with Sellers, The Prisoner of Zenda, and Ralph Thomas's heist film A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Sommer reduced her screen appearances to focus on painting. In the mid-1980s, she became involved in a long-running legal dispute with Zsa Zsa Gabor following their appearance together on the TV show Circus of the Stars; Sommer was eventually awarded $3.3 million in damages for defamation.
Sommer was married twice during her life. Her first marriage was to writer Joe Hyams from 1964 until 1981. She later married hotelier Wolf Walther in 1993, remaining with him until his death in 2026.
Sources: The Guardian Film.