A death three months after her husband's
Elke Sommer died on Wednesday at her residence in Los Angeles, according to her stepson Sebastian Walther, who spoke to the German publication Bild. She was 85 years old. Her passing came about three months after the death of her husband, Wolf Walther, who had been ill with cancer. Sebastian Walther told Bild that she could now at last be reunited with the husband she loved.[S1]
Outlets across the United States and beyond reported the same news, identifying her by the films that made her name: the Pink Panther entry A Shot in the Dark and the 1963 picture The Prize.[S2][S3][S4][S5][S6][S7][S8]
From wartime Berlin to Italian film sets
Sommer was born in Berlin on November 5, 1940, at a time when the city was under Nazi occupation. During World War II her family left the capital and settled in Niederndorf, a small town. In 1957 she relocated to London, where she worked as an au pair for the household of the actress Vicki Michelle. A holiday in Italy changed her path: the director Vittorio De Sica spotted her, and she began to appear in films. By the early 1960s she had moved to Hollywood, where she also built a following as a pin-up model.[S1]
A run of 1960s studio pictures
Sommer appeared opposite Paul Newman in The Prize and alongside Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark. Her credits from the same decade include The Art of Love with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke, The Oscar with Stephen Boyd, and Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! with Bob Hope. She also featured in Deadlier Than the Male, The Wrecking Crew with Dean Martin and Sharon Tate, and The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz. In 1964 she received a Golden Globe as the most promising newcomer actress for The Prize.[S1]
Her work continued into the following decade with Zeppelin, starring Michael York, and an adaptation of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. Further titles from that period were Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil and the British comedy Carry On Behind.[S1]
