Elke Sommer

Elke Sommer

  • Birthday: 1940-11-05
  • Place of birth: Berlin, Germany

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.

Filmography

Carry On Behind

1975

As Professor Anna Vooshka

Daniella by Night

1961

As Daniella

Die Reise nach Wien

1973

As Toni Simon

Café Oriental

1962

As Sylvia

I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses

1978

As Magdalene Kruschen

Reblaus

2005

As Maria Rüppel

Nicht von gestern

1977

As Billie Dawn

A Shot in the Dark

1964

As Maria Gambrelli

The Wrecking Crew

1968

As Linka Karensky

And Then There Were None

1974

As Vera Clyde

Deadlier Than the Male

1967

As Irma Eckman

Baron Blood

1972

As Eva Arnold

Lisa and the Devil

1973

As Lisa Reiner

The Money Trap

1965

As Lisa Baron

Zeppelin

1971

As Erika Altschul

The Oscar

1966

As Kay Bergdahl

Percy's Progress

1974

As Clarissa

Bahía de Palma

1962

As Olga

They Came to Rob Las Vegas

1968

As Ann Bennett

Probe

1972

As Heideline 'Uli' Ullman

The House of Exorcism

1975

As Lisa Reiner

Himmelsheim

1989

As Helga Münzel

Der Mann Im Pyjama

1981

As Frau Lachmann

The Corrupt Ones

1967

As Lilly Mancini

Nicht mit uns

2000

As Andrea Paretti

The Top of the Hill

1980

As Eva Heggener

Sweet Ecstasy

1962

As Elke

Jenny's War

1985

As Eva Gruenberg

Hollywood Ghost Stories

1986

As Herself

One Away

1976

As Elsa

The Invincible Six

1970

As Zari

Le Chien

1962

As Elle

The Jukebox Kids

1959

As Giulia Cesari

Niemand weint für immer

1984

As Lou Parker

Alles nur Tarnung

1996

As Jutta

The Prize

1963

As Inger Lisa Andersson

Amongst Vultures

1964

As Annie Dillman

The Dolls

1965

As Ulla (segment "Il Trattato di Eugenetica")

Percy

1971

As Helga

The Double McGuffin

1979

As Prime Minister Kura

The Art of Love

1965

As Nikki Dunnay

Lily in Love

1984

As Alicia Braun

Meet Him and Die

1976

As Perrone's Secretary

Don't Bother to Knock

1961

As Ingrid

Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt

1962

As Renate Hecker

Lampenfieber

1960

As Evelyne

La Pica sul Pacifico

1959

As Rossana

Severed Ties

1992

As Helena Harrison

Doppeltes Spiel mit Anne

1999

As Frau Lorenz

Jamaican Gold

1979

As Ursula

The Jack Benny Hour

1965

As Elke Sommer / Maria Poppenini

The Prisoner of Zenda

1979

As Countess Montparnasse

Howlers of the Dock

1960

As Giulia Giommarelli

Who Stole the Body?

1963

As Brigitte

Auf Wiedersehen

1961

As Suzy Dalton

The Net

1975

As Christa Sonntag

Beloved Con Artist

1961

As Barbara Shadwell

Love, the Italian Way

1960

As Greta

Nachts ging das Telefon

1962

As Mabel Meyer

L'amico del giaguaro

1959

As Greta

The Swiss Conspiracy

1976

As Rita Jensen

Ship of the Dead

1959

As Mylène Loureau

Twisted Sex Vol. 5

1993

As (archive)

The Astral Factor

1978

As Chris Hartman

Death Stone

1987

As Kris Patterson

Flashback

2000

As Frau Lust

Men and Noblemen

1959

As Caterina

Hotel der toten Gäste

1965

As Herself

Ewig rauschen die Gelder

2005

As Mrs. von Korff

The Venetian Affair

1967

As Sandra Fane

Inside the Third Reich

1982

As Magda Goebbels

The Victors

1963

As Helga

Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood

2021

As Herself (archive footage)

Life Is Too Long

2010

As Alfis Mutter

The Fantastic Seven

1979

As Rebecca Wayne

Tausend Takte Übermut

1965

As Herself

That's Carry On!

1977

As Professor Anna Vooshka

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