Elke Sommer, Star of ‘A Shot in the Dark,’ Dies at 85

Elke Sommer, the German-born actor whose international career included A Shot in the Dark, The Prize and Carry On Behind, has died at 85. Her stepson confirmed that she died Wednesday at her Los Angeles home, according to Variety, while The Independent also reported her death through people close to the family.

Elke Sommer built a transatlantic screen career

Sommer became one of the most recognizable European performers to move into English-language films during the 1960s. She appeared opposite Paul Newman in the 1963 thriller The Prize, then joined Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards’ 1964 comedy A Shot in the Dark, the second film centered on Inspector Clouseau.

Her screen work moved easily between comedy and international intrigue. She appeared with Sharon Tate in the 1968 spy comedy The Wrecking Crew, played Professor Anna Vooshka in the 1975 British comedy Carry On Behind, and was also featured in Ten Little Indians. That range made her a familiar presence on both sides of the Atlantic during an era when European stars were increasingly crossing into Hollywood productions.

Born Elke Schletz in Germany in 1940, she moved to London as a teenager and worked as an au pair before a photographer noticed her while she was on holiday in Italy. Modeling led to film roles and a new surname, and her image soon became closely associated with the glamorous international cinema of the period.

A later life centered on painting

Sommer largely stepped away from acting in the 1990s and devoted more of her time to painting. In a 2014 interview recalled by The Independent, she said she still received occasional offers but preferred the life she had built around art, her homes and her family.

Her husband, Wolf Walther, died in July. Reports of Sommer’s death described a close partnership and said her health had declined after his passing. She leaves behind a body of work that connects European popular cinema, studio-era Hollywood comedy and a distinctly glamorous chapter of 20th-century celebrity.