Elke Sommer
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.
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
Albert Speer und der Traum von Hollywood
Wer weiß denn sowas?
Life Is Too Long
Lafer! Lichter! Lecker!
The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau
Flashback
The Last Days of Sharon Tate
Alles nur Tarnung
Die Harald Schmidt Show
alfredissimo! Kochen mit Bio
Twisted Sex Vol. 5
Happy Holiday
Severed Ties
Schmidteinander
Training Your Best Friend
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous: The World's Most Exotic Vacation Resorts
Death Stone
Nachtcafé
Anastasia - The Mystery of Anna
ZDF-Fernsehgarten
Peter the Great
Jenny's War
Niemand weint für immer
Lily in Love
The Winds of War
St. Elsewhere
Inside the Third Reich
Der Mann Im Pyjama
Wetten, dass..?
A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square
The Top of the Hill
Verstehen Sie Spaß?
Jamaican Gold
The Prisoner of Zenda
The Double McGuffin
The Fantastic Seven
Die Pyramide
NDR Talk Show
I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses
The Astral Factor
The Love Boat
US Against the World
That's Carry On!
Meet Him and Die
The Muppet Show
The Swiss Conspiracy
One Away
The Net
Carry On Behind
The House of Exorcism
And Then There Were None
Percy's Progress
One or the Other of Us
The Six Million Dollar Man
Die Reise nach Wien
Lisa and the Devil
Baron Blood
Probe
Dalli Dalli
Zeppelin
Percy
The Invincible Six
The Wrecking Crew
The Dick Cavett Show
They Came to Rob Las Vegas
The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz
Deadlier Than the Male
The Corrupt Ones
The Venetian Affair
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!
The Oscar
The Jack Benny Hour
Tausend Takte Übermut
The Money Trap
The Art of Love
Hotel der toten Gäste
The Dolls
Frontier Hellcat
A Shot in the Dark
The Prize
… denn die Musik und die Liebe in Tirol
The Victors
The Danny Kaye Show
Seduction by the Sea
Who Stole the Body?
Bahía de Palma
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Un chien dans un jeu de quilles
Le Chien
Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt
Sweet Ecstasy
Auf Wiedersehen
Beloved Con Artist
Don't Bother to Knock
Daniella by Night
Und sowas nennt sich Leben
Love, the Italian Way
The Warrior Empress
Howlers of the Dock
Lampenfieber
The Day the Rains Came
Ship of the Dead
The Jukebox Kids
La Pica sul Pacifico
Stars in der Manege
Men and Noblemen
L'amico del giaguaro
Cinépanorama
The Oscars
Hallmark Hall of Fame
The Bob Hope Show
Bambi Awards