![]() Most of the publicity photographs for Don't Bother to Knock showed her in a bikini and revealed that although she was nothing like as buxom as Sophia Loren or Jayne Mansfield, Elke had a flat stomach and superb legs. Her first English-speaking picture was Don't Bother to Knock (Cyril Frankel, 1961) with Richard Todd and Nicole Maurey. She gradually upgraded her status to European sex symbol, and appeared in such films as the sexy De quoi tu te mêles Daniela!/Daniella by Night (Max Pécas, 1961) with Ivan Desny, Douce violence/Sweet Ecstasy (Max Pécas, 1962) opposite Pierre Brice, and the drama Das Mädchen und der Staatsanwalt/The Girl and the Prosecutor (Jürgen Goslar, 1962). Within two years Elke made five films in Italy and also two in Germany, the adventure Das Totenschiff/Ship of the Dead (Georg Tressler, 1959) with Horst Buchholz, and the interesting Film Noir Am Tag, als der Regen kam/The Day It Rained (Gerd Oswald, 1959) starring Mario Adorf. A few more Italian pictures followed, including her first starring role in Femmine di lusso/Love, the Italian Way (Giorgio Bianchi, 1960) with Ugo Tognazzi and Walter Chiari. Elke changed her surname from 'Schletz' to 'Sommer' which was easier to pronounce for a non-German audience. Her debut film was in the Italian feature Uomini e nobiluomini/Men and Noblemen (Giorgio Bianchi, 1959), which starred De Sica. After winning the title Miss Viareggio Turistica in 1958 while on vacation in Italy with her mother, she caught the attention of renowned film actor/director Vittorio De Sica and began performing on screen. She entertained plans to become a diplomatic translator for the United Nations but instead decided to try modeling. There she worked as an au-pair girl in Chigwell and Hampstead, two expensive residential areas of London. In 1957, she graduated from high school and moved to England. Her father's death in 1955, when she was only 14, interrupted her education at the local Gymnasium (high school). ![]() In 1942, the family was forced to evacuate to Niederndorf, a village near Erlangen, a small university town in the southern region of Germany. ![]() The gorgeous film star was also one of the most popular pin-up girls of the sixties and posed twice for Playboy magazine.Įlke Sommer was born Elke Schletz in 1940 in Berlin to a Lutheran Minister, Baron Peter von Schletz, and his wife, Renata, nee Topp. With her trademark pouty lips, high cheekbones, and sky-high bouffant hair-dos, Sommer made 99 film and television appearances between 19. In the late 1950s, blonde, German Elke Sommer (1940) was a European sex symbol before conquering Hollywood in the early 1960s. Her firm and determined manner makes even Judge Leader doubt Martin's guilt. In front of everyone, she reports that the "preacher" is really the vulture Weller and a murderer. Caption: At the last moment Annie intervenes. Elke Sommer and Mila Baloh in Unter Geiern/Among Vultures (Alfred Vohrer, 1964).
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