Elke Sommer

Elke Sommer (German: [ˈɛl.kə ˈzɔ.mɐ] (listen); born Elke Baronin von Schletz, 5 November 1940) is a German actress and artist. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in The Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark (1964), the Bob Hope comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (1974 film), and a memorable performance in the British Carry On series in Carry On Behind (1975). [1]

Elke Sommer
Sommer in 1965
Born
Elke von Schletz

(1940-11-05) 5 November 1940
Berlin, German Reich
OccupationActress
Years active1959–present
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1964; div. 1993)​

Wolf Walther
​
​
(m. 1993)​
Parent(s)Baron Peter von Schletz
Renata Topp[1]

Early life and career

Youngest years

Sommer was born in Berlin to Peter Baron von Schletz, a Lutheran minister, and his wife Renata, nee Topp. During the Second World War (in 1942), the family was evacuated to Niederndorf, a village near Erlangen, a small university town in Franconia, where she attended a university-preparatory high school. Her father died when she was 14 years old. She passed her college entrance exam. After this, she moved to the UK to work as an au pair in order to earn a living and to perfect her English. There, she also received some training as an interpreter.

Discovery

She was spotted by film director Vittorio De Sica while on holiday in Italy, and began appearing in films there in 1958. Also that year, she changed her surname from Schletz to Sommer, which was easier to pronounce for a non-German audience. She quickly became a noted sex symbol and moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s. She also became one of the more popular pin-up girls of the time, and posed for several pictorials in Playboy magazine, including the September 1964 and December 1967 issues.

The 1960s

Sommer became one of the top film actresses of the 1960s. She made 99 film and television appearances from 1959 to 2005, including A Shot in the Dark (1964) with Peter Sellers, The Art of Love (1965) with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke, The Oscar (1966) with Stephen Boyd, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) with Bob Hope, the Bulldog Drummond extravaganza Deadlier Than the Male (1966), The Wrecking Crew (1968) with Dean Martin, and The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968); in each of these films she was the leading lady.

In 1964, she won a Golden Globe award as Most Promising Newcomer Actress for The Prize, a film in which she co-starred with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson.

Sommer with Mexican actress Silvia Pinal in the Italian film Men and Noblemen (1959)

A frequent guest on television, Sommer sang and participated in comedy sketches on episodes of The Dean Martin Show and on Bob Hope specials, made 10 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and was a panelist on the Hollywood Squares game show many times between 1973 and 1980, when Peter Marshall was its host.

The 1970s

Sommer's films during the 1970s included the thriller Zeppelin, in which she co-starred with Michael York, and a remake of Agatha Christie's murder mystery Ten Little Indians. In 1972, she starred in two Italian horror films directed by Mario Bava: Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil. The latter was re-edited (with 1975 footage inserted) to make a different film titledHouse of Exorcism. Sommer went back to Italy to act in additional scenes for Lisa and the Devil, which its producer inserted into the film to convert it to House of Exorcism against the wishes of the director.

In 1975, Peter Rogers cast her in the British comedy Carry On Behind as the Russian Professor Vrooshka.[2] She became the Carry On films' joint highest-paid performer, at £30,000; this was an honour that she shared with Phil Silvers (who starred in Follow That Camel).

Most of her movie work during the decade came in European films. After the 1979 comedy The Prisoner of Zenda, which reunited her with Sellers, the actress did virtually no more acting in Hollywood films, concentrating more on her artwork.

Sommer also performed as a singer, recording and releasing several albums.

She provided the voice for Yzma in the German release of The Emperor's New Groove.

Later work

In the 1980s, Sommer hosted a syndicated program titled The Exciting World of Speed and Beauty.[3]

After the 1990s, Sommer concentrated more on painting than on acting. As an actress, she had worked in half a dozen countries learning the languages (she speaks seven languages) and storing images which she has expressed on canvas. Her artwork shows a strong influence from Marc Chagall.

Sommer was embroiled in a long-running feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor that began in 1984 when both appeared on Circus of the Stars. This had escalated into a multimillion-dollar libel suit by 1993.[4]

In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.[5]

As of early May 2017, Sommer was living in Los Angeles, California.

Personal life

In 1964, she married Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams (6 June 1923 – 8 November 2008), who was 17 years older, in Las Vegas.

Then she met Wolf Walther, eight years her junior and the general manager of a luxury hotel, Essex House in New York City. They were married on 29 August 1993 in Franconia.[6] In a 2014 interview, Sommer described how she and Walther met:

"I was in New York City starring in Tamara and had to stay there for four months. So, I had to find an apartment but they were excruciatingly expensive, tiny and loud. As I knew the managing director of the Essex House, I wanted to talk to him about renting a room but the hotel had a new managing director, a man by the name of Wolf Walther. So we met. For him, it was love at first sight. For me, it took a little longer, but not much longer. As you may know, Tamara is a play in which the audience follows the actor of their choice, and as you may also know, my husband is 6'5" and hard to miss. I saw him every night in the audience, following me. Every night. And that was the beginning of the greatest love story of my life, still unfolding and getting better by the day."[7]

Selected filmography

References
  1. "Elke Sommer: The Official Website - Biography". Archived from the original on 2016-10-05. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  2. Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 289. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
  3. "Elke Sommer: The Official Website - the Exciting World of Speed and Beauty".
  4. Bob Pool, $3.3-Million Libel Award in Sommer-Gabor Feud, Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1993; accessed 15 January 2011.
  5. Palm Springs Walk of Stars by date dedicated
  6. "Elke Sommer: The Official Website - Biography Page 11".
  7. Armstrong, Richard. "Elke Sommer Talks with the Cafe About Her Movies, Her Art, and How She Earned the Nickname 'The Brute'". Classic Film & TV Cafe.
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