by Adam White
The German-American pin-up model was also famed for her long-running feud with socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor, which they claimed originated via a remark about a horse
Elke Sommer, the German-American screen star best known for glamorous roles in Carry On Behind and The Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark, has died at the age of 85 – and just months after the death of her husband.
According to the German newspaper Bilt, Sommer died on Wednesday (28 October), with her photographer friend Erwin Schneider telling the outlet that Sommer “could never have imagined a life without her beloved ‘Papa Bear’,” – in reference to her husband Wolf Walther, who died in July at the age of 77.
Schneider said Sommer’s health declined in the wake of Walther’s death, adding: “Now Elke has finally been able to join him.”
Born in Nazi Germany in 1940 with the name Elke Schletz, Sommer moved to London in 1957 to work as an au pair, before being spotted by a photographer while on holiday in Italy. After becoming a model and changing her surname, Sommer became one of the most successful pin-up girls of the era, posing for Playboy magazine and transitioning into films.
She starred alongside Sharon Tate in 1968 spy comedy The Wrecking Crew – which memorably played a significant role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – and Peter Sellers in A Shot in the Dark (1964) and Paul Newman in The Prize (1963).
She made her only appearance in the Carry On franchise in 1975, starring as archaeologist Professor Anna Vooshka in Carry On Behind. Her other credits included Ten Little Indians (1974) and the classic animated film The Emperor’s New Groove (2000), where she voiced the German dub of its evil villainess Yzma.