Elke Sommer, the Golden Globe-winning actress known for starring alongside Peter Sellers in A Shot in the Dark, has died at the age of 85. Her stepson, Sebastian Walther, told German outlet Bild that Sommer died peacefully at her home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Bild reported that the cause was heart failure.
Her death came three months after her husband of 32 years, Wolf Walther, died following a battle with cancer. Sommer would have turned 86 on November 5.
and was spotted by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. Film roles followed in Italy and Germany before she moved into Hollywood productions.
One of her early American films was The Prize, directed by Mark Robson and starring Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson. In 1964, Sommer received a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer.
That same year, she appeared in one of her best-known roles as Maria Gambrelli in A Shot in the Dark, the second film in the Pink Panther franchise. Sellers starred as Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Sommer’s other film credits included The Oscar and The Wrecking Crew, in which she appeared alongside Dean Martin. Her acting career spanned nearly six decades, with her final credited role in 2017.
A love story that began in New York
Sommer was married twice. Her first marriage, to Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams, began in 1964 and ended in divorce in 1981.
She met Walther in 1989 while working on the play Tamara in New York City. Sommer later recalled that she needed somewhere to stay during the production and approached the Essex House hotel, where Walther was the new managing director.
“For him, it was love at first sight,” she told Classic Film TV Cafe in 2014. “For me, it took a little longer, but not much longer.”
The couple were married for 32 years. Walther died in July, three months before Sommer.
Her friend Erwin Schneider told Bild that Sommer could not imagine life without the husband she affectionately called “Papa Bear.”
Remembered beyond the screen
Sommer became an international star through her film work and was also known for her appearances in Playboy during the 1960s and 1970s. Outside acting, she was a painter.
In recent years, she had stepped away from the spotlight. According to Bild, she had been confined to bed in the months before her death.
Her roles with Newman, Sellers and Martin remain part of a career that took her from European films to Hollywood and made her a recognizable screen presence for generations of moviegoers.
