A SOMMER TO REMEMBER

‘Pink Panther’ Sex Symbol Dies at 85

The German-born star died just months after her husband of 32 years.

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Elke Sommer, the international sex symbol best known for playing Maria Gambrelli in Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther franchise, has died at age 85. Sommer’s stepson, Sebastian Walther, told German newspaper Bild that she died at her home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles on Wednesday, one week before her 86th birthday. The Berlin-born actor had been suffering from heart failure, which reportedly left her bedridden for the past few months. Her death came three months after her husband of 32 years, Wolf Walther, died of cancer. “Now she can finally be with her beloved husband again,” Walther said. In her decades-long career, Sommer also appeared in movies such as The Wrecking Crew (1968) as well as And Then There Were None (1974). Her most famous role was in the 1964 Pink Panther sequel, A Shot In The Dark, and she reunited with Sellers to star in the 1975 comedy, The Prisoner of Zenda. In 1964, Sommer won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer after appearing in several Italian and German movies, as well as the romantic spy comedy The Prize alongside Hollywood icon Paul Newman.