# Elke Sommer, Pink Panther star, dies aged 85

> The German actor who became a Hollywood bombshell in the 1960s and 70s has died in Los Angeles of heart failure.
- Title: Elke Sommer, Pink Panther star, dies aged 85 · the Guardian
- Summary: The German actor who became a Hollywood bombshell in the 1960s and 70s has died in Los Angeles of heart failure. Elke Sommer, the German actor who starred in…
- Keywords: elke sommer, german actor, hollywood, a shot in the dark, and then there were none, pink panther, death, news, world, Elke, Sommer, Pink
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/film/2026/oct/29/elke-sommer-prolific-german-star-of-a-shot-in-the-dark-and-and-then-there-were-none-dies
- Published: 2026-10-29T16:36:52+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: elke sommer, german actor, hollywood, a shot in the dark, and then there were none, pink panther, death, news, world
## German star dies in Los Angeles
Elke Sommer, the prolific German actor known for A Shot in the Dark and And Then There Were None, has died aged eighty five.Bild magazine reported that Sommer died in Los Angeles of heart failure.
## From Berlin to Hollywood
Born Elke Schletz in nineteen forty in Berlin, the daughter of a Protestant pastor, Sommer was evacuated to Bavaria during the war.
## Breakthrough with Paul Newman
With her gift for languages, Sommer made her first English film in nineteen sixty one.
## Peak years in the sixties and seventies
Sommer's career took off with A Shot in the Dark, where she leaned into her sexpot image as a maid suspected of murders.
## Horror films and British comedies
In the nineteen seventies, Sommer appeared in cult horror films by Mario Bava including Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil.
## Later life and legal victory
After scaling back screen appearances to concentrate on painting, Sommer became embroiled in a feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor after appearing together on TV show Circus of the Stars in the mid nineteen eighties.
## Key takeaway

Elke Sommer, the German actor who starred in A Shot in the Dark and And Then There Were None, has died aged eighty five in Los Angeles of heart failure.