{"id":2395,"date":"2026-11-02T17:03:36","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2026-11-02T17:03:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:03:36","slug":"a-golden-age-hollywood-legend-has-passed-away-her-unforgettable-story-will-leave-you-in-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/?p=2395","title":{"rendered":"A Golden Age Hollywood Legend Has Passed Away \u2014 Her Unforgettable Story Will Leave You in Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some stars simply light up the screen the moment they appear, and for a whole generation of moviegoers, Elke Sommer was one of them.See More\u2026<\/p>\n

The German-born actress, whose golden beehive and almond eyes became a symbol of 1960s Hollywood glamour, has died at the age of 85. She passed away peacefully at her home in Bel-Air, Los Angeles, on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, just days before what would have been her 86th birthday.<\/p>\n

Her stepson, Sebastian Walther, told the German outlet Bild that she died of heart failure after a long illness. \u201cElke passed away peacefully around 10 p.m.,\u201d he said. \u201cNow she can finally be with her beloved husband again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born Elke Schletz in Berlin on November 5, 1940, she grew up in the middle of World War II, and her family fled south in 1942. Her father, a Protestant pastor, died when she was just 14.<\/p>\n

She never planned to be a movie star. Young Elke wanted to study languages and become an interpreter. Then, on a 1958 trip to Italy with her mother, she caught the eye of someone in the Italian film business, and before long she was working in films all over Europe under her new name, Sommer.<\/p>\n

Hollywood came calling when producer Pandro S. Berman cast her opposite Paul Newman in the 1963 thriller \u201cThe Prize.\u201d The role won her a Golden Globe as most promising newcomer, and suddenly her face was everywhere.<\/p>\n

A year later came the role many fans still treasure. In Blake Edwards\u2019 Pink Panther sequel \u201cA Shot in the Dark,\u201d she played Maria Gambrelli, the maid accused of murder who completely bewitched Peter Sellers\u2019 bumbling Inspector Clouseau.<\/p>\n

The leading men kept coming. She shared the screen with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke in \u201cThe Art of Love,\u201d with Bob Hope in \u201cBoy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!\u201d and with Dean Martin and Sharon Tate in \u201cThe Wrecking Crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet she never took the \u201csex symbol\u201d label too seriously. \u201cIt\u2019s not because of my looks or anything; it\u2019s because of the energy,\u201d she once explained. She did believe stars should be something special, saying audiences should say \u201coh\u201d and \u201cah\u201d when they see them.<\/p>\n

There was a surprising chapter, too. A feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor that started in 1984 grew into a public war of words, and Sommer took it to court. In 1993, a jury ordered Gabor and her husband to pay Sommer $3.3 million.<\/p>\n

In later years she worked mostly in Europe, appearing in films such as \u201cZeppelin\u201d and \u201cAnd Then There Were None,\u201d before turning much of her attention to painting. That same year, 1993, she married German hotelier Wolf Walther, a marriage she later called the most important decision of her life.<\/p>\n

Her final months were marked by heartbreak. Wolf died of cancer in July 2026, and Elke told Bild that her heart was broken. She followed him only three months later. Her family says her last wish was to rest in the family grave in her beloved Franconia, Germany, beside her parents.<\/p>\n

Somewhere tonight, a maid named Maria Gambrelli is still smiling at a clumsy French inspector, and that\u2019s exactly how we\u2019ll remember Elke Sommer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some stars simply light up the screen the moment they appear, and for a whole generation of moviegoers, Elke Sommer was one of them.See More\u2026 The German-born actress, whose golden beehive and almond eyes became a symbol of 1960s Hollywood glamour, has died at the age of 85. She passed away peacefully at her home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chua-phan-loai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chuyenhay360.com.vn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}