Elke Sommer

Biography

Elke Sommer, born Elke von Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist, who has starred in many Hollywood films. 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 most popular pin-up girls of the time, and posed for several pictorials in Playboy magazine, including the September 1964 and December 1967 issues. Sommer became one of the top film actresses of the 1960s. She made just shy of 100 film and television appearances between 1959 and 2005, including A Shot in the Dark with Peter Sellers, The Art of Love with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke, The Oscar with Stephen Boyd, Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number! with Bob Hope, the Bulldog Drummond extravaganza Deadlier Than the Male, The Wrecking Crew with Dean Martin, and The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz. 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. 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 "Square-Master", or host. 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 frequently filmed 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 subsequently re-edited (with 1975 footage inserted) to make a different film called House 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 honor 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. She provided the voice for Yzma in the German release of The Emperor's New Groove. Sommer also performed as a singer, recording and releasing several albums. Description above from the Wikipedia article Elke Sommer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Maria Gambrelli

A Shot in the Dark

Jutta

Alles nur Tarnung

Helga

The Victors

Linka Karensky

The Wrecking Crew

Countess Montparnasse

The Prisoner of Zenda

Inger Lisa Andersson

The Prize

Vera Clyde

And Then There Were None

Lisa Reiner

Lisa e il diavolo

Eva Arnold

Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga

Irma Eckman

Deadlier Than the Male

Lou Parker

Niemand weint für immer

Annie Dillman

Unter Geiern

Self

Elke Sommer erzählt...

Rita Jensen

The Swiss Conspiracy

Lisa Baron

The Money Trap

Didi

Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!

Professor Anna Vooshka

That's Carry On!

Erika Altschul

Zeppelin

Ulla (segment "Il Trattato di Eugenetica")

Le Bambole

Professor Anna Vooshka

Carry On Behind

Rebecca Wayne

The Fantastic Seven

Kay Bergdahl

The Oscar

Helga

Percy

Clarissa

Percy's Progress

Prime Minister Kura

The Double McGuffin

Giulia Giommarelli

Urlatori Alla Sbarra

Olga

Bahía de Palma

Self

US Against the World

Miss Pelham

A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square

Self

Training Your Best Friend

Nikki Dunnay

The Art of Love

Alicia Braun

Lily in Love

Ann Bennett

Las Vegas: 500 millones

Chris Hartman

The Astral Factor

Herself

Hotel der toten Gäste

Perrone's Secretary

Pronto ad uccidere

Brigitte

Les bricoleurs

Mrs. von Korff

Ewig rauschen die Gelder

Kris Patterson

Der Stein des Todes

Christa Sonntag

Das Netz

Heideline 'Uli' Ullman

Probe

Elke

Douce violence

(archive)

Twisted Sex Vol. 5

Miezi

Einer von uns beiden

self

The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau

Daniella

De quoi tu te mêles Daniela!

The Last Days of Sharon Tate

Ingrid

Don't Bother to Knock

Eva Gruenberg

Jenny's War

Singer

… denn die Musik und die Liebe in Tirol

Barbara Shadwell

Geliebte Hochstaplerin

Ellen

Am Tag, als der Regen kam

Sandra Fane

The Venetian Affair

Frau Lust

Flashback - Mörderische Ferien

Lisa Reiner

The House of Exorcism

Toni Simon

Die Reise nach Wien

Mylène Loureau

Das Totenschiff

Magdalene Kruschen

I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses

Helga Münzel

Himmelsheim

Frau Lachmann

Der Mann im Pyjama

Eva

Himmel, Amor und Zwirn

Renate Hecker

Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt

Evelyne

Lampenfieber

Britta

Und sowas nennt sich Leben

Sylvia

Café Oriental

Herself

Tausend Takte Übermut

Suzy Dalton

Auf Wiedersehen

Eva

Verführung am Meer

Paula Schultz

The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz

Magda Goebbels

Inside the Third Reich

Lilly Mancini

Die Hölle von Macao

Saffo - Venere di Lesbo

Andrea Paretti

Nicht mit uns

Eva Heggener

The Top of the Hill

Rossana

La Pica sul Pacifico

Greta

Intrigo a Taormina

Elke Sommer / Maria Poppenini

The Jack Benny Hour

Ariane

Un chien dans un jeu de quilles

Maria Rüppel

Reblaus

Helena Harrison

Severed Ties

Alfis Mutter

Das Leben ist zu lang

Self

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The World's Most Exotic Vacation Resorts

Mabel Meyer

Nachts ging das Telefon

Herself

Hollywood Ghost Stories

Frau Lorenz

Doppeltes Spiel mit Anne

Elsa

One Away

Zari

The Invincible Six

Perlico - Perlaco

Billie Dawn

Nicht von gestern

Greta

L'amico del giaguaro

Ursula

Jamaican Gold

Elle

Le Chien

Giulia Cesari

Ragazzi del Juke-Box

Caterina

Uomini e nobiluomini

Herself (archive footage)

Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood

Self - Actress

Sunset Boulevard - 27 Meilen Amerika

Self

Mario Bava: Operazione paura