Actress Elke Sommer dies aged 85

Left · 3Elke Sommer, the German-born actress known for A Shot in the Dark and The Prize, died on Wednesday 28 October 2026 aged 85. 1 2 3 Mixed · 2Her stepson Sebastian Walther told the German newspaper Bild that she died of heart failure at her home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, 'peacefully around 10 p.m.' 2 3 Mixed · 2Her death came about three months after that of her husband, the hotelier Wolf Walther, who died in July; the Independent gives his age as 77 and the Daily Mail says he died of cancer. 1 3

Left · 1The Independent, citing Bild, quotes her photographer friend Erwin Schneider as saying she could never have imagined life without her husband and that her health declined after his death. 1 Left · 2Born Elke Schletz in Berlin on 5 November 1940, she moved to London at 17 to work as an au pair, and was then discovered after a beauty contest in Viareggio, Italy, leading to early films in Italy and Germany. 2 1 Mixed · 2Variety and Deadline say the director Vittorio De Sica noticed her while she was on holiday in Italy and began casting her in films; Deadline adds that she then took the surname Sommer and that her father was a Lutheran minister. 4 5

Mixed · 2Her Hollywood breakthrough was The Prize (1963) opposite Paul Newman, which won her a Golden Globe for best female newcomer, shared with Tippi Hedren and Ursula Andress. 2 3 Left · 3In A Shot in the Dark (1964) she played Maria Gambrelli, a maid suspected of murder, opposite Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau; other credits included The Art of Love, The Oscar, The Wrecking Crew, Baron Blood and Carry On Behind (1975). 3 2 1 Mixed · 2She posed for Playboy; the Daily Mail counts three shoots, in 1964, 1967 and 1970. 3 2

Left · 3She was also a painter, cabaret singer and television presenter, and largely retired from acting in the 1990s; her last credit listed by the Daily Mail was the 2017 animated short A Thousand Kisses. 2 1 3 Mixed · 2She was married to Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams from 1964 until their 1981 divorce, and later to Wolf Walther; she had no children of her own. 2 3 Centre · 1Deadline says she was married to Walther from 1993, and that Walther died of cancer on 22 July. 4

Left · 2She was also known for a long feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor; in December 1993 a Santa Monica jury awarded Sommer $3.3 million in libel damages from Gabor and her husband Frederick von Anhalt. 2 1 Left · 1The Independent says the feud reportedly began in 1984 over a remark about a horse, with each woman giving a different account of what was said. 1 Centre · 1Deadline's account of the feud says it began when Sommer reportedly quipped "Poor horse" as Gabor mounted a saddle during the 1984 CBS show Circus of the Stars; Gabor then told a German outlet that Sommer was destitute, and Sommer sued for defamation and emotional distress. 4

Centre · 1Deadline also lists her television work, including playing Joseph Goebbels's wife in the 1982 ABC miniseries Inside the Third Reich and appearing on The Muppet Show, and notes that The Wrecking Crew was the last Sharon Tate film released before her 1969 murder. 4