Elke Sommer
is a German actress, entertainer and artist who was discovered in Italy in 1958 and moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s. She became one of the most popular pin-up girls of the time, posing for several pictorials in Playboy Magazine. Between 1959 and 2005 she starred in 99 films and television productions, including “A Shot in the Dark”, “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. Most of her movie work during the 70’s came in European films. After the 1979 comedy “The Prisoner of Zenda”, she did no more Hollywood productions, concentrating more on her artwork. Elke also performed as a singer, recording and releasing several albums, and provided the voice for Yzma in the German release of “The Emperor's New Groove”. Elke lives in Los Angeles with her husband Wolf Walther.
