Overview
- Elke Sommer died at her Bel Air home on Wednesday, October 28, and her stepson told Bild she “passed away peacefully” around 10 p.m.
- Her family reported the cause as heart failure and said her health had declined in recent months, leaving her largely bed-bound after her husband Wolf Walther died in July.
- Sommer rose from late‑1950s European films to Hollywood in the early 1960s, winning a 1964 Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for The Prize and becoming best known as Maria Gambrelli in A Shot in the Dark.
- Her career spanned roughly 58 years with work in film, television and stage and a final credited role in 2017, and she later devoted herself to painting and other creative projects.
- A notable episode of her public life was a 1993 libel verdict that awarded her $3.3 million against Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband, a case often recalled in tributes and obituaries.