Elke Sommer, star of 'A Shot in the Dark', has died aged 85

German actor Elke Sommer has died at the age of 85. She was one of the European stars who shone in 1960s Hollywood, and she is best remembered for A Shot in the Dark, opposite Peter Sellers.

From Berlin to Hollywood

Sommer was born in Berlin. Her father, Peter von Schletz, was a Lutheran pastor from an aristocratic family, and her mother was Renata. The family was evacuated during the war and grew up in poverty in a one-bedroom basement flat. Her father died in 1955.

In 1957 she was working as an au pair in London. She planned to become an interpreter or a teacher of classical languages. On holiday in Viareggio, Italy, she won a beauty contest. That led to her first film, The Friend of the Jaguar, in 1959. She spoke seven languages.

What happened before?

In 1964 she played Maria Gambrelli in A Shot in the Dark, the maid Inspector Clouseau goes out of his way to clear of murder. Sellers even tried to improvise a marriage with her. Sommer declined, saying their relationship was purely professional.

In 1966 she played one of two bikini-clad hitwomen in the Bond-style Deadlier Than the Male. Quentin Tarantino later said it was the first film he ever saw in a cinema, aged five. In 1963 she had won a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer for The Prize.

What came after?

Hollywood mostly focused on her looks. In 1986 she told the LA Times she had been "merely decoration" too many times in films. In the 1970s and 80s she worked mainly in Europe, including two films for Italian horror director Mario Bava.

She also moved into TV, singing and theatre. A keen painter since her teens, she presented the 13-part series Painting with Elke Sommer in 1985. She won a libel case against Zsa Zsa Gabor and received $3.3m in damages.

Sommer divorced Joe Hyams, whom she married in 1964, in 1981. In 1993 she married the hotelier Wolf Walther, who died a few months before her. She is survived by her stepson, Sebastian Walther.