Elke Sommer, 'A Shot in the Dark' star, dies at 85
Elke Sommer, the German-born actor who starred opposite Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther film "A Shot in the Dark," has died at 85, The Guardian and AP report. She died in Los Angeles, the German outlet Bild reported. Sommer was a mainstay of 1960s Hollywood comedies and spy films, and later focused on painting.
Elke Sommer, the German-born actor who starred opposite Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther film "A Shot in the Dark," has died at 85, The Guardian and AP report.
Sommer died at home in Bel Air, in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, her stepson Sebastian Walther said in remarks to the German outlet Bild, AP reports. The Guardian says Bild reported she died of heart failure. The Los Angeles Police Department said it responded to the death of an 85-year-old woman on Sommer's block Wednesday night, AP reports.
Sommer was born Elke Schletz in Berlin in 1940, the daughter of a Protestant pastor, the outlets report. She was spotted on a trip to Italy in 1958 and soon began working in European films, The Guardian and AP report.
She broke through in Hollywood in the 1960s with roles alongside Paul Newman in "The Prize" and Sellers in "A Shot in the Dark," where she played a maid suspected of murder, the outlets report. She also starred with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke in "The Art of Love," AP reports. In the 1970s she appeared in the Agatha Christie adaptation "And Then There Were None" and the British comedy "Carry On Behind," The Guardian reports.
Sommer later scaled back her screen work and focused on painting, The Guardian reports. She was married to writer Joe Hyams from 1964 to 1981 and later to hotelier Wolf Walther, who died this year, the outlets report.
What we know: Elke Sommer died at 85 at her home in Los Angeles.
What we don't: Whether her family has planned a memorial.
Where outlets agree The Guardian and AP report Elke Sommer has died at 85, citing the German outlet Bild.
Where they differ The cited reports agree on the key facts so far.