Elke Sommer Tributes: Germany Hails a 'Hollywood Ambassador' as Fans Recall 'Carry On Behind' and Clouseau

A day after the death of Elke Sommer at 85, tributes have come from two directions: German political leaders honoring one of the country’s best-known exports to Hollywood, and fans and former castmates remembering a performer whose comic timing outlived the 1960s glamour image.

Sommer died Wednesday, Oct. 28, at her home in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles, one week before what would have been her 86th birthday on Nov. 5. Her stepson, Sebastian Walther, told the German newspaper Bild that she died of heart failure and “passed away peacefully around 10 p.m.,” adding, “Now she can finally be with her beloved husband again.” Her husband, Wolf Walther, died of cancer about three months earlier.

How Germany is remembering Elke Sommer

The Berlin-born actress was honored at home by senior officials, Die Zeit reported. Wolfram Weimer, Germany’s culture minister, described her as an “ambassador of German film in Hollywood,” and Markus Söder, the leader of Bavaria’s CSU party, called her a “true acting icon” (both translated from German).

Those tributes reflect how unusual her path was. Sommer made films across Europe before MGM cast her opposite Paul Newman in “The Prize” (1963), which earned her a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer. She became one of the few German actresses of her generation to work steadily as a leading lady in American studio films.

German TV personality Natascha Ochsenknecht, a friend, also posted a personal farewell, according to the German celebrity site Promiflash, wishing Sommer a good journey and hoping she was reunited with Walther.

Why fans keep bringing up ‘Carry On Behind’

For American audiences, Sommer is most closely tied to “A Shot in the Dark” (1964), the Pink Panther film in which she played Maria Gambrelli opposite Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau. But many of the tributes shared on X, as collected by the Daily Star and Entertainment Now, focused on a different film: the British comedy “Carry On Behind” (1975), in which she played Professor Anna Vrooshka alongside Kenneth Williams.

“I probably saw her first in A Shot in the Dark where her talent for comedy was apparent. She totally won me over in Carry on Behind - a marvellous addition to the established cast. Her scenes with Williams are joyous,” one fan wrote, according to the Daily Star.

Another post, quoted by Entertainment Now, called her a “standout member of the Carry On Behind cast” and said “she was great in comedy or drama.”

A castmate’s memory from ‘Tamara’

One of the warmest notes came from someone who said they worked with Sommer in the immersive off-Broadway play “Tamara” in 1989-90. “She didn’t know any of our names so it was always ‘Hello, friend!’ and ‘Where’s my wine?’” the post read, as quoted by Entertainment Now. “For Christmas, she gave us holiday lithographs that she had made. Dear lady.”

“Tamara” mattered to her personally, too. In a 2014 interview with the Classic Film & TV Cafe, quoted by the Daily Star, Sommer said she met Wolf Walther while starring in the play in New York, when he was the new managing director of the Essex House hotel. “Tamara is a play in which the audience follows the actor of their choice,” she said, and Walther, who she noted was 6-foot-5, followed her every night. “That was the beginning of the greatest love story of my life,” she said.

A career that ran nearly six decades

Entertainment Now notes that Sommer’s screen career stretched from 1959 to a final role in 2017. Beyond the Pink Panther and Carry On films, her credits included:

• “The Wrecking Crew” (1968), with Dean Martin and Sharon Tate
• “Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!” (1966), with Bob Hope
• “Baron Blood” (1972)
• “And Then There Were None” (1974), an Agatha Christie adaptation
• TV guest spots on “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “The Muppet Show” and “St. Elsewhere,” plus appearances on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson”

The Daily Star also notes she voiced the villain Yzma in the German-language version of Disney’s “The Emperor’s New Groove” (2000).

What’s next

No details about a funeral or memorial service had been reported as of early Friday. Information about survivors was also limited in early reports; she had no children of her own.

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Earlier coverage: Elke Sommer, Star of 'A Shot in the Dark' and 'The Prize,' Dies at 85 (Oct 29)