This is the scene I’d show anyone who asks why Elke Sommer was the sex symbol of 1968. As Paula Schultz in The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, she makes her escape at the Berlin Wall under the eyes of the border guards, runs through tall reeds in a tiny bikini and dives into a pond. Bikini only, no nudity.
Elke Sommer makes her Berlin Wall escape in a bikini in The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968). Ranked scenes, all 17 clips, photos, her story and an FAQ below.
Note: Real film clips and photos only, from her movies, her 1960s publicity and freely licensed archive pictures. No fakes, no private material.
Updated: October 29, 2026 (Bangkok). New hub, published the day news broke that Elke Sommer had died at 85.
Latest news: Elke Sommer, the Pink Panther star and one of the great screen sex symbols of the 1960s, has died at 85, a week before her birthday. What we know, and her life in pictures. Read the Elke Sommer tribute →
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Elke Sommer (born Elke Schletz in Berlin on November 5, 1940) was the German blonde who conquered Hollywood in the 1960s. Discovered in Italy after winning the Miss Viareggio title in 1958, she won a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer for The Prize (1963) with Paul Newman, played Peter Sellers’ leading lady Maria Gambrelli in the Pink Panther film A Shot in the Dark (1964), posed for Playboy in 1964 and 1967 and made more than 100 film and TV appearances. She died at her home in Bel Air on October 28, 2026, at 85.
Elke Sommer Latest News (October 2026)
German newspaper Bild reported on October 29 that Elke Sommer died peacefully around 10 p.m. on Wednesday, October 28, at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. According to Bild she died of heart failure after being bedridden for a long time. Her husband Wolf Walther, whom she married in 1993, had died in July. Full story with sources: Elke Sommer dies at 85: Pink Panther star and 1960s sex symbol remembered.
The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968)
Film: The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968) | Role: Paula Schultz | What you see: bikini, black bra, towel
Elke Sommer plays an East German Olympic athlete who escapes to the West by pole-vaulting over the Berlin Wall. It is a goofy Cold War sex comedy, and it gave her some of her most famous bikini shots.
The Berlin Wall bikini escape (1:02) is the clip at the top of this page.
Black bra, checked cap and a kiss (1:00)
Paula Schultz in a black bra and a checked cap, hiding in a hotel room with a nervous man in a suit and a bellhop in red. Elke Sommer plays all the confusion for laughs, then grabs him for a long kiss. Underwear and pure 1968 slapstick charm in The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, no nudity.
Bikini chase through the arcade (0:37)
A night chase under the arcades. Elke Sommer, as Paula Schultz, runs through the street in a skimpy bikini while a man in a dark coat and hat hunts her down between the parked cars. Frantic, funny and very Sixties. The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz (1968), bikini only, no nudity.
Towel in the locker room (0:12)
Short and cheeky. In a women’s locker room, Paula Schultz clutches a yellow towel to her chest when a big man in a suit barges in, and Elke Sommer’s bare shoulders steal the shot right before she screams him out of the room. The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, 1968. Towel, no nudity.
Carry On Behind (1975)
Film: Carry On Behind (1975) | Role: Professor Anna Vooshka | What you see: silk and lace nighties, a split skirt
The British Carry On team cast her as a Russian archaeologist who ends up on a caravan site. She became the series’ joint highest-paid performer for the part.
Silk nightie in the caravan (0:36)
Carry On Behind (1975) gives us Elke Sommer as Professor Anna Vooshka, the Russian archaeologist, in a cream silk nightie inside her caravan. She leans toward the camera with a wide-eyed look that’s pure Carry On innuendo. Lots of cleavage and lingerie, and a reminder why she was the series’ big star signing. No nudity.
Lace nightie in bed (0:17)
Bedtime in the caravan. Professor Vooshka sits up in bed in a lacy nightie, chatting away with her blonde hair a mess, while her startled colleague lies in the other bed trying not to look. Elke Sommer in Carry On Behind (1975), lingerie and cleavage, all innuendo and no nudity.
The split skirt at the dig (0:18)
My favourite Carry On gag. Out at the dig, Professor Vooshka turns around in her cardigan and red skirt and the back of the skirt has split open, flashing her bottom while a man by the birdcage stares. Elke Sommer in Carry On Behind (1975), cheeky in every sense, a quick butt flash and nothing more.
Sweet Violence (1962)
Film: Sweet Violence / Douce violence (1962) | Role: Elke | What you see: bikini, party dancing, a love scene
A black-and-white French youth drama, made when she was 21.
Bikini on the beach (0:57)
Sweet Violence (1962) on the beach. Elke Sommer, playing a girl called Elke, wrestles a young man in the surf, races him across the sand in her bikini and ends up wrapped in his arms by the water. Black-and-white, sun-soaked and flirty, and she looks incredible. Bikini, no nudity.
Party dance (0:54)
Party time in Sweet Violence (1962). A trumpet player blasts away while Elke Sommer, all big blonde hair and a low-cut top, dances through a crowded room of young partygoers and owns every frame. Black-and-white French youth cinema at its sexiest, with lots of curves and attitude but no nudity.
On the floor with her lover (0:55)
One of the steamiest moments in Sweet Violence (1962). Elke Sommer lies back on a wooden floor with her blonde hair spread out while a young man in a white shirt leans over her, kissing her neck and pressing close. Black-and-white, intense and sensual, with bare shoulders but no nudity in this clip.
Daniella by Night (1961)
Film: Daniella by Night / Zarte Haut in schwarzer Seide (1961) | Role: Daniella | What you see: striptease in silhouette
Silhouette striptease in the nightclub (0:37)
Black-and-white and very daring for 1961. In Daniella by Night, Elke Sommer’s Daniella performs a striptease behind a backlit screen, so the packed nightclub only sees her silhouette while the men at the front tables lean in and stare. It’s all shadow and suggestion here, with no clear nudity on screen.
German Films: Die Reise nach Wien (1973) and Einer von uns beiden (1974)
Roles: Toni Simon; Miezi | What you see: towel, bare back, black lingerie, a brief topless moment
Einer von uns beiden: topless in the spotlight (0:06)
Blink and you’ll miss it. In Einer von uns beiden (1974) the camera peeks through a doorway as Elke Sommer’s Miezi stands topless in a pool of light before a man steps in and holds her. Only six seconds long, but it’s a rare topless moment from her German films.
Einer von uns beiden: black slip and stockings (1:20)
Einer von uns beiden (1974), Wolfgang Petersen’s first feature. Elke Sommer plays Miezi, lounging on her bed in a black slip and stockings while a man in a trench coat questions her, then standing at the door in an open black robe. Lingerie and legs all the way, no nudity in this clip.
Die Reise nach Wien: towel and bedroom scenes (3:59)
Die Reise nach Wien (1973) is a German comedy, and this long clip mixes several bedroom moments. Elke Sommer, as Toni Simon, holds a blue towel over her front with her bare back to the camera, then wakes up tangled in white sheets, while co-star Hannelore Elsner has nude bedroom scenes of her own.
Next → The Invisible Strangler
The Invisible Strangler (1976)
Film: The Invisible Strangler (1976) | Role: Chris Hartman | What you see: pink bikini
Pink bikini by the pool (0:57)
Poolside in The Invisible Strangler (1976). Elke Sommer plays Chris Hartman in a pink halter bikini, slipping off her sunglasses and chatting with a man in tinted glasses by the water. She’s in her mid-thirties here and still a total knockout. Pink bikini and cleavage, no nudity in this clip.
The House of Exorcism (1975)
Film: The House of Exorcism (1975), the producer’s recut of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil | Role: Lisa | What you see: topless, but in a non-consensual scene
Content warning: both clips below come from the film’s assault scene, in which Lisa is drugged and unconscious. We include them because they are her best-known nude footage, not as a love scene.
Lisa drugged and unconscious (1:17)
Heads up: this is not a love scene. In The House of Exorcism (1975), the recut of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil, Elke Sommer’s Lisa lies drugged and unconscious while a man’s hands open her clothes, leaving her topless and draped in beads. It’s the build-up to the film’s assault scene.
Max and the unconscious Lisa (2:42)
Another disturbing one, so be warned. In The House of Exorcism (1975), Max (Alessio Orano) broods in a dark mansion, then lies over Elke Sommer’s unconscious Lisa and kisses her while she cannot respond. She is topless and in panties, but this is the film’s assault scene, not a seduction.
Elke Sommer Photos
From her first Italian films in 1959 to a 1965 NBC portrait, her Coppertone bikini ad, fans in Freiburg in 1968 and a 2018 portrait, plus stills from her films.
Photo credits: NBC Television 1965, Coppertone 1965, I ragazzi del juke-box (1959), Uomini e nobiluomini (1959) and The Prize poster by Reynold Brown (1963), all public domain; Willy Pragher, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Staatsarchiv Freiburg (CC BY 4.0); A.k.zehnnullzwo (CC BY-SA 4.0); all via Wikimedia Commons. Film stills from the films named.
Elke Sommer Gossip: Playboy, a Nude Tan and the Zsa Zsa Feud
She posed for Playboy pictorials in September 1964 and December 1967. In a 1969 interview with the National Police Gazette she admitted she painted in the nude on a hill outside her Beverly Hills home: “It’s the best way to get a tan all over.”
Her most famous off-screen fight was with Zsa Zsa Gabor. It started when both appeared on Circus of the Stars in 1984 and ended in court: in December 1993 a Santa Monica jury awarded Sommer $3.3 million in damages from Gabor and her husband Frederick von Anhalt for calling her a Hollywood has-been in two German publications in 1990 (Los Angeles Times).
Love life: she married Hollywood columnist Joe Hyams in 1964 and they divorced in 1981. She met hotel manager Wolf Walther while starring in the play Tamara in New York and married him in Franconia in 1993. He died in July 2026, three months before her.
Who Was Elke Sommer?
She was the only child of a Lutheran pastor, Peter Schletz, and grew up in Erlangen after the family was evacuated from Berlin in 1942. Her father died when she was 14. She wanted to be an interpreter, worked as an au pair in London and spoke six languages. A holiday in Italy changed everything: after she was named Miss Viareggio in 1958, director Vittorio De Sica brought her to Rome, and within a few years she was making films in Italy, Germany, France and Britain.
Hollywood followed: The Prize (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), The Art of Love (1965), The Oscar and Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966), Deadlier Than the Male (1966), The Wrecking Crew (1968) with Dean Martin and Sharon Tate, then Mario Bava’s Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil and the 1974 And Then There Were None. She was a regular on Hollywood Squares, a recording artist and, from the mid-1960s, a painter. Later she lived between Los Angeles and Marloffstein in Bavaria.
Elke Sommer FAQ
When did Elke Sommer die?
On Wednesday, October 28, 2026, around 10 p.m., at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles, according to Bild. She was 85 and would have turned 86 on November 5.
What did Elke Sommer die of?
Bild reported that she died of heart failure after being bedridden for a long time.
Did Elke Sommer do nude scenes?
A few. She is topless in a brief scene in Einer von uns beiden (1974) and in The House of Exorcism (1975), where the nude footage is part of an assault scene. Most of her famous sexy moments, like The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz and Carry On Behind, are bikini and lingerie scenes.
Did Elke Sommer pose for Playboy?
Yes. She had Playboy pictorials in September 1964 and December 1967.
Who did Elke Sommer play in the Pink Panther films?
Maria Gambrelli, the maid accused of murder whom Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) falls for, in A Shot in the Dark (1964).
Who was Elke Sommer married to?
Columnist Joe Hyams from 1964 to 1981, and hotelier Wolf Walther from 1993 until his death in July 2026.
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Elke Sommer Dies at 85: Pink Panther Star and 1960s Sex Symbol Remembered3 min ago
