Elke Sommer
Acting
Born: November 5, 1940 (age 85) · Berlin, Germany
Highest Rated
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
A Shot in the Dark
1964
The Six Million Dollar Man
1974
The Muppet Show
1976
The Love Boat
1977
Lisa and the Devil
1973
Baron Blood
1972
The Prize
1963
And Then There Were None
1974
St. Elsewhere
1982
The Oscars
1953
Frontier Hellcat
1964
The Wrecking Crew
1968
Photos (7)
Movies (77)
The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz
Paula Schultz
A Shot in the Dark
Maria Gambrelli
The Wrecking Crew
Linka Karensky
And Then There Were None
Vera Clyde
Lisa and the Devil
Lisa Reiner
The Oscar
Kay Bergdahl
The Prize
Inger Lisa Andersson
The Prisoner of Zenda
Countess Montparnasse
Baron Blood
Eva Arnold
Lily in Love
Alicia Braun
Frontier Hellcat
Annie Dillman
Who Stole the Body?
Brigitte
Deadlier Than the Male
Irma Eckman
Jamaican Gold
Ursula
The Art of Love
Nikki Dunnay
The Victors
Helga
Bahía de Palma
Olga
The Money Trap
Lisa Baron
Probe
Heideline 'Uli' Ullman
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Miss Pelham
The Venetian Affair
Sandra Fane
Auf Wiedersehen
Suzy Dalton
That's Carry On!
Professor Anna Vooshka (archive footage)
Love, the Italian Way
Greta
The Swiss Conspiracy
Rita Jensen
The Net
Christa Sonntag
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
Didi
They Came to Rob Las Vegas
Ann Bennett
The Dolls
Ulla (segment "Il Trattato di Eugenetica")
Zeppelin
Erika Altschul
The Astral Factor
Chris Hartman
The House of Exorcism
Lisa Reiner
Carry On Behind
Professor Anna Vooshka
Howlers of the Dock
Giulia Giommarelli
One Away
Elsa
Flashback
Frau Lust
Meet Him and Die
Perrone's Secretary
I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses
Magdalene Kruschen
Ship of the Dead
Mylène Loureau
The Double McGuffin
Prime Minister Kura
The Corrupt Ones
Lilly Mancini
Percy
Helga
Severed Ties
Helena Harrison
The Fantastic Seven
Rebecca Wayne
Men and Noblemen
Caterina
Mondo Hollywood
1967
The Warrior Empress
1960
Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt
Renate Hecker
Life Is Too Long
Alfis Mutter
Don't Bother to Knock
Ingrid
Und sowas nennt sich Leben
Britta
Jenny's War
Eva Gruenberg
Alles nur Tarnung
Jutta
Percy's Progress
Clarissa
Death Stone
Kris Patterson
Der Mann im Pyjama
Frau Lachmann
Le Chien
Elle
What's a Carry On?
Professor Anna Vooshka (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Invincible Six
Zari
Daniella by Night
Daniella
Sweet Ecstasy
Elke
La Pica sul Pacifico
Rossana
L'amico del giaguaro
Greta
The Journey to Vienna
Toni Simon
The Day the Rains Came
Ellen
Un chien dans un jeu de quilles
Ariane
Café Oriental
Sylvia
Lampenfieber
Evelyne
The Jukebox Kids
Giulia Cesari
The Last Days of Sharon Tate
1999
Twisted Sex Vol. 5
(archive)
The Jack Benny Hour
Elke Sommer / Maria Poppenini
… denn die Musik und die Liebe in Tirol
Singer
Seduction by the Sea
Eva
One or the Other of Us
Miezi
Geliebte Hochstaplerin
Barbara Shadwell
Niemand weint für immer
Lou Parker
TV Shows (14)
The Love Boat
Benita James · 2 eps
St. Elsewhere
Natasha · 1 eps
The Six Million Dollar Man
Dr. Ilse Martin · 1 eps
Miss Universe
Host · 1 eps
Inside the Third Reich
Magda Goebbels · 2 eps
Peter the Great
Charlotte · 4 eps
The Bobby Darin Show
1 eps
Schmidteinander
1 eps
Anastasia - The Mystery of Anna
Isabel Von Hohenstauffen · 2 eps
Happy Holiday
Isabella Scattini · 1 eps
Hallmark Hall of Fame
The Princess · 1 eps
Jenny's War
Eva Gruenberg · 4 eps
Top of the Hill
Eva Heggener · 2 eps
Gisbert
6 eps
Self / Appearances (32)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Self · 2 eps
Die Harald Schmidt Show
Self · 1 eps
NDR Talk Show
Self · 3 eps
Nachtcafé
Self · 1 eps
alfredissimo! Kochen mit Bio
Self · 1 eps
The Oscars
Self · 1 eps
Wer weiß denn sowas?
Self · 2 eps
The Dick Cavett Show
Self - Guest · 1 eps
ZDF-Fernsehgarten
Self · 1 eps
Wetten, dass..?
Self · 2 eps
Bambi
Self · 2 eps
Dinah!
Self · 1 eps
The Muppet Show
Self - Special Guest Star · 1 eps
The Bob Hope Show
Self · 5 eps
Lafer! Lichter! Lecker!
Self · 1 eps
Dalli Dalli
Self · 1 eps
Dalli Dalli
Self - Candidate · 1 eps
The Danny Kaye Show
Self · 1 eps
Heut' abend
Self · 1 eps
Cinépanorama
Self · 1 eps
Verstehen Sie Spaß?
Self · 1 eps
Stars in der Manege
Self · 1 eps
Reflets de Cannes
Self · 1 eps
US Against the World
Self
Tausend Takte Übermut
Herself
Mario Bava: Operazione paura
Self
The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau
self
Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood
Self (archive footage)
Training Your Best Friend
Self
Hotel der toten Gäste
Herself
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The World's Most Exotic Vacation Resorts
Self
Elke Sommer erzählt...
Self