Elke Sommer

About

Elke Sommer (German: [ˈɛl.kə ˈzɔ.mɐ] ; née Schletz, born 5 November 1940) is a German actress. She appeared in numerous films throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in The Pink Panther sequel A Shot in the Dark (1964), the Bob Hope comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (1974), and the British Carry On series in Carry On Behind (1975).

Sommer was born in Berlin, Nazi Germany, to Baron Peter von Schletz, a Lutheran minister, and his wife, Renata (née – Topp). During the Second World War (in 1942), the family was evacuated to Niederndorf, a village near Erlangen, a small university town in Franconia. From 1950, she attended a gymnasium (university-preparatory secondary school). Her father died when she was 14. Sommer was good with languages, but math and science posed challenges for her, so her mother let her drop out of gymnasium in 1957 one year after graduating from middle school. In the spring of 1957, Sommer moved to London for one year to work as an au pair for the family of Vicki Michelle, who later became an actress, and to attend an English language institute three times a week. This was Sommer’s first…