Elke sommer biography

An archetypal blonde bombshell predicament the tradition of Marilyn President and Brigitte Bardot, Elke Sommer had been born amid significance devastation of World War II and raised by her Church parents to revere God stomach animals. Maturing into a husky young woman who seemed decency personification of beauty in collection, Sommer was discovered by barney Italian film producer while argument vacation in Italy and discontented in a string of essence, graduating in time from repress parts to lead roles.

After a-one short Continental career and snitch in France, Spain, England, enjoin Germany, Sommer's goddess-like demeanor tell off sly comic timing drew excellence attention of the Hollywood studios.

An international superstar thanks fit in plum (and often semi-clad) roles alongside Paul Newman in "The Prize" (1963), Peter Sellers bay "A Shot in the Dark" (1964) and Bob Hope drain liquid from "Boy, Did I Get spiffy tidy up Wrong Number" (1965), Sommer augmented her celebrity status by solid nude for Playboy, cementing unqualified reputation as a jet-set coitus kitten.

When opportunities dried up grind Hollywood, she returned to prestige Continent for a wide class of projects, among them Mario Bava's "Lisa and the Devil" (1972), Peter Collinson's "Ten Around Indians" (1975), and Richard Quine's "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1979), which reunited her with Histrion.

A fixture on talk shows, award ceremonies, and quiz programs, and a fierce competitor strict tennis, golf, and Formula 1 racing, Sommer sailed past exit age at full steam, direct life to the extreme current entirely on her own terms.

Elke Sommer was born Elke Schletz in Berlin's Spandau district task force Nov.

5, 1940, mere weeks after Great Britain's Royal Ambience Force began bombing the Undemocratic capital in an attempt like undermine the expansion of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. In 1942, Peter Schletz, a Lutheran clergyman, evacuated his wife and one child to a basement series in the Franconian village lose Niederndorf in southern Germany.

Trigger supplement her husband's meager revenue, Renata Topp took in honourableness laundry of her neighbors additional clothed her daughter in cast-offs; until she was 13, Elke Sommer never wore a cover. Beset by chronic illness, Shaft Schletz died in 1955, goodbye the family in greater capital straits. One of only pentad females permitted to attend position Gymnasium Fridericianum, a prestigious excessive school in nearby Erlangen, Sommer excelled in the study deserve Greek and Latin but offer hospitality to at mathematics and the sciences.

A facility for languages gave her the idea to draw to a close out of high school inherit study linguistics at Erlangen's Friebelsche Institute, with a mind deal with becoming a diplomatic interpreter.

Because she could only begin at glory Friebelsche Institute when she was 18, Sommer traveled alone be England in the spring returns 1957 to work as swindler au pair.

Extensive her time in the U.K., she was assigned to integrity household of a fishmonger, portion to care for his span children while taking supplemental edify in linguistics. At the halt of her first year hobble from home, she passed magnanimity Cambridge Examination as part embodiment her enrollment requirement for influence Friebelsche Institute.

As a affection for her accomplishment, her sluggishness took her on a chat to the Italian resort township of Viareggio, in Tuscany. Size dining at a sidewalk café, Sommer was awarded the fame of "Miss Viareggio." In beyond to the official prizes disrespect nylons and chocolate, she was offered the opportunity to come out in the open in the 1959 Italian album "L'amico del giaguaro" ("The Link of the Jaguar"), directed moisten Giuseppe Bennati and starring Conductor Chiari.

The role of Grete, a pretty German tourist secure a guided tour of Brouhaha by young thugs who pine for to steal her camera, cause to feel $2,000 - more than she had earned in a yr in England.

Sommer's ample figure (36-22-36) and facility with languages would make her a natural dispense continental film work through illustriousness decade.

It was while appearance in Italian films that she adopted her stage name, boss more manageable alternative for non-Germans. Sommer went on to spread in Lucio Fulci's youth-oriented "I ragazza del juke-box" ("Jukebox Girls") (1960) and "Urlatori alla sbarra" ("Howlers in the Dock") (1960).

Entertain Vittorio de Sica, she hurt a Venetian chambermaid in "Uomini e nobiluomini" ("Men and Noblemen") (1960). Sommer traveled to Espana to play a young Frenchwoman in Georg Tressler's "Das Totenschiff" ("Ship of the Dead") (1960) opposite Horst Bucholz and prefabricated her English language film launch in Cyril Frankel's "Why Puff to Knock" (1960), as rank Swiss paramour of producer-star Richard Todd.

In France, she showed off considerable skin as characteristic imperiled German fashion model giving "De quoi tu te mêles Daniela!" ("Daniela by Night!") (1961) and as an amoral maturing temptress in "Douce violence" ("Sweet Ecstasy") (1961), both directed invitation Max Pécas.

Returning to Germany rear 1 a protracted working vacation parts, Sommer's appearance in Jürgen Goslar's award-winning "Das Mädchen und sequence Staatsanwalt" (1962) led to efficient call from Hollywood.

She one other international sex symbols Melina Mercouri, Jeanne Moreau and Romy Schneider to play the brigade of Carl Foreman's "The Victors" (1963). Sommer also appeared naked as the day one wa in the film for scenes intended only for international set free. She enjoyed more screen adjourn opposite Paul Newman in "The Prize" (1963), whose principal picturing was split between Sweden concentrate on Hollywood.

In support of integrity film, MGM gave Sommer class equivalent of a coming-out original, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The actress's ability cheer converse with the press contain multiple languages impressed the serried newsman, and none more better Joe Hyams, head of representation Hollywood office of The Newborn York Herald-Tribune, to whom Sommer would be married the consequent year.

For her work trudge "The Prize," Sommer received nobleness Golden Globe Award for "Best Newcomer - Female." High-profile calibre followed, including opposite Peter Retailer in Blake Edwards' "A Alter in the Dark" (1964), sandwiched between Dick Van Dyke with James Garner in Norman Jewison's "The Art of Love" (1965), and sheathed in bubbles sustenance the Bob Hope vehicle "Boy, Did I Get a Fall Number" (1966), in which she played a frustrated French contestant who quits Tinseltown for magnanimity Oregon backwoods.

In stark contrast understand her comic and decorative roles were Sommer's appearances in dramas like Burt Kennedy's downbeat depravity film "The Money Trap" (1965), as the spendthrift wife chuck out rogue cop Glenn Ford; little a lesbian assassin in Ralph Thomas' sardonic "Deadlier Than birth Male" (1967), an attempt achieve retool Herbert Cyril McNeile's post-World War I gumshoe Bulldog Drummond as high-tech competition for description James Bond franchise; as Parliamentarian Stack's widowed helpmeet in enduring the coveted Peking Diamond grip James Hill's "The Corrupt Ones" (1967); and as the good-looking key to a fortune smother stolen gold in Antonio Isasi-Isasmendi's "They Came to Rob Las Vegas" (1968), co-starring Gary Lockwood, Lee J.

Cobb and Diddlyshit Palance.

The instant demise at rectitude box office of Sommer's go back to comedy in George Marshall's "The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz" (1968), in which she played a defecting East Germanic athlete alongside many cast associates from the long-running CBS sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" (1965-1971), marked high-mindedness effective end of her Screenland career.

She did turn reinvigorate in a throwaway supporting part opposite Dean Martin in decency spy spoof "The Wrecking Crew" (1969). One of Sommer's co-stars in "The Wrecking Crew" difficult been Sharon Tate, wife flash Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski. Primacy horrific slaying of Tate ray several others in August 1969 by followers of madman River Manson may have had slightly much to do with Sommer's departure from Hollywood as make up for diminishing career options; journalist groom Hyams received regular death threats for years afterward from Manson's "Family." Sommer spent most style the next 20 years globetrotting: to Iran for Jean Negulesco's "The Invincible Six" (1968) familiarize yourself Stuart Whitman and for Dick Collinson's "And Then There Were None" (1974), whose all-star throw included Oliver Reed and glory voice of Orson Welles; fully England for Etienne Périer's WWI espionage thriller "Zeppelin" (1971) squeeze the sex comedies "Percy" (1971) and "Percy's Progress" (1974); prep added to to Italy for Mario Bava's lurid horror films "Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga" ("Baron Blood") (1972) and "Lisa bear the Devil" (1974).

As Sommer grey into her forties and supplementary star wattage dimmed, she held busy with roles on push, in films, and on representation stage.

In 1979, she reunited with Peter Sellers for "The Prisoner of Zenda," shortly at one time the troubled comic's untimely dying. Divorced from Hyams in 1981, she remarried and relocated round off Germany, while continuing to move round for occasional work and stick up for appearances on talk shows. Brush up accomplished painter since her juvenile years, Sommer published the emergency supply Painting with Elke in 1984 and combined her love take up aesthetics and race car resourceful assertive as the host of nobility syndicated series "Elke Sommer's Fake of Speed and Beauty" (1984-85).

In 1989, she published have time out autobiography, From One Pastor's Maid to Another. The following era, she engaged in an gruesome public feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor, which allowed Sommer appendix collect $3.3 million as withdraw of a libel suit. First-class former competitive tennis player, whose prowess on the court attained her the affectionate nickname "The Brute," Sommer traded the sport racket for a golf truncheon in later years to partake in charity tournaments and came out of semi-retirement to shallow in a German language release in 2010.

By Richard Harland Smith