Elke Sommer, the Pink Panther and Carry On star, dies aged 85, just months after losing her husband
Elke Sommer in *The Pink Panther*, the film series she was known for, alongside a career spanning five languages and Hollywood co-stars including Paul Newman and Peter Sellers.
Elke Sommer died peacefully at her Bel-Air home on Wednesday at around 10pm, her stepson Sebastian Walther confirmed to the German newspaper Bild, with heart failure given as the cause. The German-American actress, who was fluent in five languages and starred alongside Paul Newman, Peter Sellers and Sharon Tate across her 1960s Hollywood heyday, had seen her health decline sharply after the death of her husband, German hotelier Wolf Walther, in July at the age of 77.
Photographer friend Erwin Schneider said Sommer 'could never have imagined a life without her beloved Papa Bear,' adding: 'Now Elke has finally been able to join him.'
Her long-running feud with socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor — said to have begun over a remark about a horse — was almost as celebrated as her screen career.
