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forgotten ones

Solvi Stubing (born 19 January 1941) is a German actress and TV personality, mainly active in Italy.

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Born in Berlin, Stubing obtained wide popularity in Italy with a commercial for Peroni Beer, and starred in many films, often of modest value, in several genres of Italian cinema. For many years, she has hosted a television program about cinema.

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Trivia

828_solvi_01Solvi is famous for being the blonde girl in the first campaign for Peroni Beer (Birra Peroni), a very popular Italian beer brand.

After her film career ended, she became politically active. She was a member of the Commission of European Women under President Craxi’s period.

She was a candidate in Italy to the European Parliament for the right-wing Alleanza Nazionale party.

Filmography

La Banda del gobbo (Brothers Till We Die)

Nude per l’assassino (Strip Nude for Your Killer)

New York chiama Superdrago (Secret Agent Super Dragon) (New York Calling Superdragon)

New York chiama Superdrago (Secret Agent Super Dragon) (New York Calling Superdragon)

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20236694Born Elke Baronesse von Schletz in Germany in 1940, Elke Sommer moved into acting from a modeling career. During the 1960s, she starred opposite the likes of Paul Newman (The Prize, 1963), Peter Sellers (A Shot in the Dark, 1964) and Bob Hope (Boy, Did I Get the Wrong Number, 1966). She also became a familiar face on the 1970s talk show circuit and presented her own painting instruction show on PBS.

Early Career
Actress, artist. Born Elke Schletz on November 5, 1940, in Berlin, Germany. Known for being a blonde bombshell, Elke Sommer appeared on screen with the likes of Peter Sellars, Paul Newman, and Bob Hope. The daughter of a Lutheran minister, she lost her father when she was fourteen. A few years later, Sommer went to London to work as a nanny. This job helped her learn English, which she hoped would help her achieve her goal of becoming a translator.

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While at the University of Erlangen, Sommer abandoned her studies to pursue a modeling career and then moved into acting. She made her film debut in the German film, Das Totenschiff (1959). In the early 1960s, she won over American audiences with her roles in the drama The Prize (1963) with Paul Newman and the comedy A Shot in the Dark (1964) with Peter Sellars. Sommer won a Golden Globe for her work on The Prize. In addition to being an actress, she was a popular sex symbol of the era. Sommer was compared to such other screen sirens as Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot.

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Career Highlights
Other notable film roles from this time include The Art of Love(1965) with James Garner, The Oscar (1966) with Milton Berle, andBoy, Did I Get the Wrong Number (1966) with Bob Hope. This last film was the start of a long working relationship with Hope. She went on to appear on many of his television specials over the next decade.

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In the 1970s, Sommer was a popular talk show guest, appearing onThe Mike Douglas Show, The Merv Griffin Show, Dinah!, and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. She had roles in a number of feature films, including Zeppelin (1971), The Swiss Conspiracy(1979), and The Prisoner of Zelda (1979), which reunited her with Sellars. The next decade brought more work, largely in television. She made guest appearances on such shows as The Love Boat andSt. Elsewhere and had roles in several miniseries, including Inside the Third Reich (1982), Peter the Great (1985), and Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna (1986). Also around this time, she served as host of the syndicated show, Elke Sommer’s World of Speed and Beauty, which covered motor sports. She later hosted Painting with Elke Sommer, a 13-part instructional series, which was broadcast on public television.

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Creating art had long been a passion for Sommer. She once said, "I’d rather be known as a painter who acts than as an actress who paints." Over the years, her work has appeared in numerous shows at galleries and museums around the world and carries on aspects of traditional German folk art.

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154_elga_andesen_004Elga Andersen (born Helga Hymen, February 2, 1935, in Dortmund – December 7, 1994, in New York City) was a German actress and singer.

From the age of six, she attended a ballet school, and then went to high school in Paris. There she worked as a model and was noticed by the tabloids.

Otto Preminger selected her for a small role in his film Bonjour tristesse in 1958 and gave her the stage name "Elga Andersen". Her first starring role was in 1960 in Brazilian Rhapsody. Into the 1970s she appeared in many predominantly European productions. Her most famous role was as Lisa Belgetti alongside Steve McQueen in Le Mans.

In the 1960s she began to sing and succeeded well in the charts. Among other things, she sang the title song of The Guns of Navarone. In 1978 she married the American millionaire Peter R. Gimbel; in 1981 she worked with her husband in a multi-million-dollar project trying to recover the vault of the SS Andrea Doria, and two documentaries were made for American television.

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Selected filmography
1958: Bonjour tristesse
1958: So ein Millionär hat’s schwer
1963: À toi de faire… mignonne
1964: Coast of Skeletons
1971: In Prison Awaiting Trial
1971: Le Mans
1971–1974: Aux frontières du possible (French TV show
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107_dagmar_lassander1Dagmar Lassander (byname of Dagmar Regine Hager; born 16 June 1943) is a German actress.

She was born in Prague to a French father and Chilean-German mother, and began her career as a costume designer in the Berlin Opera. Her first role was in 1966 in a film by Will Tremper. Starting from 1969, she began to work regularly, especially in Italian crime, horror and erotic movies. In the 1980s she was featured in several Italian TV series and the French-German feature film S.A.S. à San Salvador.

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104_Helga Sommerfeld_01German stage and film actress Helga Sommerfeld (1941 – 1991) appeared in more than 35 films and did countless theatre performances. She appeared in several European crime and spy films of the 1960’s.

Heimatfilms and Schlagerfilms
Helga Sommerfeld was born in Dresden, Germany, in 1941. After grammar school in Berlin, she attended the Ufa-Film- und Schauspielschule (The Ufa Film and Theatre Academy). Through mediation by Ada Tschechowa, Helga already played her first film roles during her studies. She appeared in Heimat films and Schlager films like Mein Schatz ist aus Tirol/My Dear is from Tyrol (1958, Hans Quest) with Marianne Hold, Wenn die Conny mit dem Peter/When Conny and Peter Do It Together (1958, Fritz Umgelter) starring Conny Froboess, Freddy unter fremden Sternen/Freddy Under Strange Stars (1959, Wolfgang Schleif) with Freddy Quinn, and Schlagerraketen (1960, Erik Ode), in which she played her first leading part.

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104_Helga Sommerfeld_03Krimis and Eurowesterns
During the 1960’s Helga Sommerfeld appeared mainly in crime and adventure films. Among the Krimis were Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer/The Secret of the Black Trunk (1961, Werner Klingler) based on a novel by Bryan Edgar Wallace (the son of), Die Nylonschlinge/Nylon Noose (1963, Rudolf Zehetgruber) with Dietmar Schönherr, and another creepy Bryan Edgar Wallace adaptation – Das Phantom von Soho/The Phantom of Soho (1964, 104_Helga Sommerfeld_05Franz Josef Gottlieb) with Dieter Borsche. She then appeared in the Eurowesterns Die schwarzen Adler von Santa Fe/Black Eagle of Santa Fe (1965, Alberto Cardone, Ernst Hofbauer) with Brad Harris, and Aventuras del Oeste/Seven Hours of Gunfire (1965, Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent) with Rik Van Nutter. She appeared in more international productions. Her leading men in the Beirut-set suspense film 24 Hours to Kill (1964, Peter Bezencenet) were Mickey Rooney and Lex Barker, in the spy thriller Das Geheimnis der drei Dschunken/Code Name Alpha (1965, Ernst Hofbauer) she appeared with Stewart Granger and Rosanna Schiaffino and in another spy adventure, Corrida pour un espion/Code Name: Jaguar (1965, Maurice Labro) the stars were Ray Danton and Pascale Petit. Other films in which she appeared in supporting parts were the crime comedy Lange Beine – lange Finger/Long Legs, Long Fingers (1966, Alfred Vohrer) with Senta Berger and the spy thriller Da Berlino l’apocalisse/Spy Pit (1967, Mario Maffei) with Roger Hanin and Margaret Lee. She starred in the prostitution crime drama Jungfrau aus zweiter Hand/Second-hand Virgin (1967, Ákos Ráthonyi, Udo N. von Tyrol) with Ingrid von Bergen.

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Theatre and Television
At the end of the 1960’s the spy and horror craze in the European cinema halted, and so did Helga Sommerfeld’s film career. Helga started to focus on the stage and appeared in countless stage plays in the German speaking regions. Her last theatre appearance was in the play Die geliebte Stimme auf der Bühne (The Beloved Voice of the Stage), which toured through Germany from 1986 till 1988. During the 1980’s she often appeared in TV productions by Sender Freies Berlin. Incidentally she appeared in films. She co-wrote and co-edited Der Stromtreiber – Der Mann im roten Kahn/Stream Drifter (1979, Peter Frederik Schneider), in which she also co-starred with Wolf Zehren. Her last leading part in a film was in Der Callboy/The Callboy (1985, Axel Schulz). Helga Sommerfeld died in Berlin in 1991.

Text found at filmstarpostcards.blogspot.no

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117_hannelore_elsner_001Hannelore Elsner (born Hannelore Elstner on 26 July 1942 in Burghausen, Bavaria) is a German actress. After finishing drama school she worked in theatres in Berlin and München. Later she starred in films and TV series such as Die Schwarzwaldklinik. She is known for her role as the lead character Inspector Lea Sommer in the German detective series Die Kommissarin.

Selected filmography
Old Heidelberg (1959)
Zur Hölle mit den Paukern (1968)
Willi wird das Kind schon schaukeln (1971)
Grete Minde (1977)
The Tailor from Ulm (1979)
Man Without Memory (1984)
117_hannelore_elsner_002Cherry Blossoms (film) (2008)
Zeiten ändern dich (2010)

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Alice and Ellen Kessler (born 20 August 1936 in Nerchau, Germany) are twins popular in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, from the 1950s and 1960s and until today for their singing, dancing and acting. They are usually credited as the Kessler Twins (Die Kessler-Zwillinge in Germany and Le Gemelle Kessler in Italy where are considered an mythe of the cultural popular history of the country), and remain popular today.

11749133_tkt2In the USA, they were not as popular, but appeared in the 1963 film Sodom and Gomorrah as dancers and appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in that year.

Their parents, Paul and Elsa, sent them to ballet classes at the age of six, and they joined the Leipzig Opera’s child ballet program at age 11. When they were 18, their parents used a visitor’s visa to escape to West Germany, where they performed at the Palladium in Düsseldorf. They performed at The Lido in Paris between 1955 and 1960, and represented West Germany in the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest, finishing in 8th place with Heute Abend wollen wir tanzen geh’n (Tonight we want to go dancing).

They moved to Italy in 1960 and gradually moved to more serious roles. At the age of 40, they agreed to pose on the cover of the Italian edition of Playboy. That issue became the fastest-selling Italian Playboy up until that point.

They moved back to Germany in 1986 and currently live in Munich. They have received numerous awards from both the German and Italian governments for promoting German-Italian cooperation through their work in show business.

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117203_sdSusan Denberg (born 2 August 1944 in Bad Polzin, Germany (now Połczyn-Zdrój, Poland)) is the stage name of an Austrian model and actress, born Dietlinde Zechner.

After becoming immersed in the 60s high life of drugs and sex, Denberg left show business and returned to Austria. News interviews at the time show a depressed Denberg in the company of her mother, at home in Klagenfurt. These news items, repeated in fan periodicals for years, gave the impression Denberg was suicidal or had already died. Actually, she is still alive.

In 1965, Denberg landed a co-starring role as a German girl on the ABC war drama series 12 O’Clock High. Her fellow TOS guest star Frank Overton was a regular on this series (Robert Lansing had been a regular, as well, but he left the series the previous year).

The following year, Denberg made her feature film debut with a supporting role in the drama An American Dream. Star Trek regular George Takei and TOS guest actors Richard Derr and Warren Stevens also had roles in this film, which was directed by Robert Gist. While working on this film, Warner Bros. held a contest to find Susan a new screen name, offering a $500 award to whoever came up with the best one, but all of the entries were ultimately rejected.

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Denberg was featured Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine’s August 1966 issue. In her profile, Denberg stated that she had ambitions to become an actress. Denberg was later one of the finalists for the title of 1967’s Playmate of the Year, though the title ultimately went to Lisa Baker.

Denberg’s most famous acting role outside of Star Trek was in Hammer Film‘s cult 1967 science fiction/horror film Frankenstein Created Woman, opposite Peter Cushing. However, Denberg’s voice in the film was dubbed as her Austrian accent was considered too strong.

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After Frankenstein Created Woman, Denberg returned to Austria. Over the years, rumors surfaced that she had died of a drug overdose in 1967 or that she had become mentally unstable as a result of using the drug LSD. In actuality, Denberg is currently alive and well, and is living in Klagenfurt, Austria, under her real name, Dietlinde Zechner.

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Laya Raki (born Brunhilde Marie Alma Herta Jörns on July 27, 1927) is a former dancer and film actress popular in Germany in the 1950s and early 1960s. She also became an international star for her roles in English films and TV productions.Contents 

Biography
Laya Raki was born in Hamburg, Germany, to acrobat Maria Althoff, and her partner, acrobat and clown Wilhelm Jörns. As she was an admirer of the famous dancer La Jana and liked to drink raki, she assumed the stage name Laya Raki.

She attracted attention for the first time in 1947 – 1950 as a dancer in Frankfurt and other German cities. When she performed in Berlin, her star began to rise: her 38-23-36 figure (5.35 ft, 110 lbs) and erotic radiance became the talk of the town.

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The film company DEFA engaged her for a small role as a dancer in the film The Council of the Gods, which won two awards. One newspaper, the Berliner Morgenpost, wrote that she was a great dancer with an expressive face rich in nuances. In the same year the press department of Realfilm presented her as a new discovery in Die Dritte von rechts ("The Third from the Right"), a rather boring dance film, the highlight of which was the scene in which the scantily clad dancer Laya Raki (with only two white stars on her nipples) exposes herself to the lustful gazes of the male cinema audience. In 1953, she danced in the film Ehe für eine Nacht ("Marriage for One Night"). Her next film was Die Rose von Stambul ("The Rose of Stamboul"), in which the Austrian actor Paul Hörbiger wants to marry her upon seeing her dancing. In Roter Mohn ("Red Poppy") she played the gypsy girl Ilonka who also conducted refreshing dialogues with the famous Viennese comic actor Hans Moser.

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In 1954, she was lured to London by empty promises of film roles in the United Kingdom and in Hollywood. There she found herself unemployed, but her situation made headlines that opened opportunities. The J. Arthur Rank Film Company, which needed a slightly exotic type for a film in New Zealand, received her with open arms. She was given the role of the Maori chieftain’s seductive wife in "The Seekers" and created a worldwide stir by baring her breasts, 10 years before Rudi Gernreich invented the first topless swimsuit.

After having taken acting lessons in Hollywood, she appeared in several UK TV productions, including 39 episodes of the popular series Crane (1962–1965), which made her a well known actress. In it Laya Raki starred as Halima, a Moroccan dancer and bartender, who is the partner of the title character, the bar owner and smuggler Richard Crane, played by Patrick Allen.

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She appeared in revealing outfits in film and photographs, and captured men’s attention like no other German showgirl in the 1950s. She modeled for postcards, pin-up photographs and magazines all over the world. The Broadway columnist Earl Wilson noted her preference for scanty clothing: “You should have seen Laya Raki. Even if she is dressed, she looks like, as if she only wears the zipper and has forgotten the material”. Of course he placed some photos of her in "Earl Wilson’s Album of Showgirls (1st Issue! 1956)".

In 1962, she sang and recorded "Faire l`amour" and "Oh Johnny hier nicht parken", which are still available as singles and on CD-ROMs. The latter was banned by a Nuremberg court who thought her ecstatic moaning was imitating coitus.

At the age of 30, Laya Raki married the Australian actor Ron Randell in London. “He is the best and most beautiful man of the world”, she said, and remained at his side until he died on June 11, 2005, in Los Angeles.

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116963_ou1Uschi Obermaier (September 24, 1946, a.k.a. Chrissi Malberg) is a former fashion model, actress and is associated with the 1968 left-wing movement in Germany. In the latter she is considered an iconic sex symbol of the so-called "1968 generation".

Obermaier and the Kommune 1
Uschi Obermaier was born in Sendling, a suburb of Munich, Germany. She started an apprenticeship as a photo-restorer but gave it up to become a model. She was discovered by the magazine Twen. After a successful photo-shoot with photographer Guido Mangold in the Cameroon, she became its top model and internationally famous. She went on to work for other magazines and top photographers such as Helmut Newton. Slim and petite, but feminine, she represented a new type of model and posed nude from the front for the first time on a magazine cover.

In Munich, Obermaier was briefly involved with Pamir survivor Othello (a.k.a. Rudolf Liebzeit). She was briefly a member of the Munich-based experimental commune/band Amon Düül around 1968/69 and lived in their commune. She met communard Rainer Langhans at a concert at the end of 1968 and she soon moved from Munich to the Berlin-based Kommune 1 after Langhans became her boyfriend. They talked openly to the media about their relationship, becoming symbols of the sexual revolution. They became the German version of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

116963_ou2Kommune 1 was the first politically-motivated commune in Germany, and Obermaier’s name is most intimately connected with the 1960s student rebellions in the minds of many Germans. However, she later said that she had no particular interest in politics, and that she moved into Kommune 1 simply to be close to Langhans. Photos of her at political demonstrations and with members of the Kommune appeared in all the popular magazines of the time.

After the end of Kommune 1 in 1969, Langhans and Obermaier moved to the Highfisch-Kommune in Munich.

Films
Obermaier played alongside Iris Berben in Rudolf Thome’s Detektive (1968). She was the protagonist of Rote Sonne (1969). She also played a small role alongside Rainer Langhans in Haytabo, and portrayed Marlene in the film adaptation of the novel Blutrausch.

116963_ou3Music
Obermaier’s photo is featured on the cover of the 12-inch single "These Days" by Xu Xu Fang (released in 2007 by Vacancy Records).
She played maracas in the band Amon Düül, aka Amon Düül I, on two albums: Collapsing (1970, released by Metronome) and Disaster (1972, released by BASF).

Life after the Kommune 1
In 1973, Uschi Obermaier fell in love with Dieter Bockhorn, the wealthy owner of a club in Hamburg’s Reeperbahn red-light district.

Obermaier went on the Rolling Stones’ 1975 tour and is said to have had affairs with both Keith Richards and Mick Jagger, as well as with Jimi Hendrix – a visitor to Kommune 1 – with whom she can be seen kissing and cuddling farewell outside his West Berlin hotel Kempinski in the movie Last Experience.

116963_ou4Obermaier and Bockhorn traveled the world in a customized bus, first spending three years in Asia, then going to Mexico and the U.S. for another three years. Obermaier said in an interview (Galore, Issue 25) that reports that she and Bockhorn had a traditional wedding in every country they traveled in were untrue. They married only once, in India. Their relationship ended abruptly after ten years when Dieter Bockhorn died in a motorcycle accident in Mexico on New Year’s Eve, 1983.

The authorized biography of Obermaier’s life, High Times, was written by Obermaier and Olaf Kraemer. The book reached third place on the best seller list and stayed there for five months. This biography was adapted into a film biopic, Eight Miles High (original German title: Das Wilde Leben), screenplay adapted by Kraemer from his book. The controversial movie was directed by Achim Bornhak and released in February 2007. The movie was reclassified by distributors from PG 16 to PG 12 and reached number ten at the box office. The aggregate film review website Metacritic awarded it a score of 32, based on 10 reviews.

Uschi Obermaier was granted American citizenship. Today, she lives in Topanga Canyon near Los Angeles, and works as a jewellery designer.

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Elga Andersen slender, blonde German actress Elga Andersen (1935) starred in international films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. She was also a popular recording artist during the 1960’s, known for singing the title song for The Guns of Navarrone (1961). Later she became a producer too.

116920_ea2Bohemian Life
Elga Andersen was born Elga Hymen in 1935, in Dortmund, Germany. She lost her father during WW II. First she hoped to become a dancer but then studied French and English. She went to Paris in 1953 to become an interpreter. She led a bohemian life, met artists and posed for fashion shoots. She made her film debut when she was discovered by director André Hunebelle. She appeared in Les Collégiennes/The Twilight Girls (1957, André Hunebelle) as Elga Hymen. The following year she appeared in Bonjour tristesse (1958, Otto Preminger) and the classic thriller Ascenseur pour l’échafaud/Elevator to the Scaffold (1958, Louis Malle). She also appeared in German productions like Ist Mama nicht fabelhaft?/Isn’t Mama Fabulous? (1958, Peter Beauvais) and So ein Millionär hat’s schwer/Such a Millionaire has Tough Times (1958, Géza von Cziffra) starring Peter Alexander. Her first leading role was in the French-Brazilian adventure Os bandeirantes/The Pioneers (1960, Marcel Camus). Elga took singing lessons and was 116920_ea3the performer of the title song of The Guns of Navarrone (1961). Gilbert Bécaud wrote especially for her Et maintenant, with words by Pierre Delanoë. She married Paris architect Christian Girard.

Seductive Beauty
Elga Andersen appeared as a seductive beauty in many European films of the 1960’s. Among them were the crime comedy Le Monocle Noir/The Black Monocle (1961, Georges Lautner), the sequel L’oeil du monocle/The Eye of the Monocle (1962, Georges Lautner), the comic thrillers L’empire de la nuit/The Empire of Night (1962, Pierre Grimblat) and A Toi de Faire Mignonne/Your Turn, Darling (1963, Bernard Borderie) both opposite Eddie Constantine, the comedy DM-Killer (1965, Rolf Thiele) with Curd Jürgens, the spaghetti-western Starblack (1966, Giovanni Grimaldi), the psychadelic sixties extrravaganza La battaglia dei mods/The Battle of the Mods (1966, Franco Montemurro), the adventure Le Capitaine Singrid/Captain Singrid (1967, Jean Leduc), Sex Power (1970, Henry Charpin) with 116920_ea4Jane Birkin, and the excellent comedy Detenuto in attesa di giudizio/Why? (1971, Nanni Loy). She worked in a few Hollywood features too credited as Helga Anderson, including A Global Affair (1964, Jack Arnold) opposite Bob Hope. She is best known for portraying Steve McQueen’s love interest in the racing epic Le Mans (1971, Lee H. Katzin). Her last film was Le Serpent/The Serpent (1973, Henri Verneuil) starring Yul Brynner and Henry Fonda, and on tv she was last seen in the Sci-fi series Aux frontières du possible/At the edge of the Possible (1971-1974). When promoting Le Mans for Cinema Center Films she had met American producer and millionaire Peter R. Gimbel who was promoting Blue Water, White Death for the same firm. In 1981 Gimbel and Andersen tried to locate and salvage the bank safe of the sunken liner Andrea Doria, and she produced for tv the documentary Andrea Doria: The Final Chapter (1981) about this project that made many headlines. Gimbel and Andersen had married in 1978 and the couple stayed together till his death in 1987. Elga Andersen died of cancer in 1994, in New York, USA. She was only fifty-nine.

Text from “European Film Star Postcards

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Heidi Rosemarie Brühl (30 January 1942, Gräfelfing, Upper Bavaria – 8 June 1991, Starnberg) was a German singer and actress who came to prominence as a young teenager and had a prolific career in film and television. She was also a successful recording artist, and is known for her participation in the 1963 Eurovision Song Contest.

116917_hb2Early career
Brühl first screen appearance was in the 1954 film Der letzte Sommer with Liselotte Pulver, but it was in the role of Dalli, in what became known as the "Immenhof films", that she became famous in Germany. Die Mädels von Immenhof, adapted from a novel by children’s writer Ursula Bruns, appeared in 1955 and was followed by two sequels, Hochzeit auf Immenhof and Ferien auf Immenhof, at yearly intervals.

In 1959, Brühl obtained a record deal with the Philips label, and her first single "Chico Chico Charlie" reached #5. In 1960 her recording of "Wir Wollen Niemals Auseinandergeh’n" or "(We Will Never Part) (Ring of Gold)" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

116917_hb3Eurovision Song Contest
Brühl first took part in the German Eurovision selection in 1960 with the Michael Jary-composed "Wir wollen niemals auseinandergehen" ("We Never Want to Be Apart"), which finished in second place but went on to top the German singles chart for nine weeks. She participated again in 1963, and this time was successful when the song "Marcel" was chosen to go forward to the eighth Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 5 March in London. "Marcel" finished the evening in ninth place of 16 entries.

Brühl also co-starred with Guy Williams in the 1963 classic film Captain Sindbad.

Later career
Brühl met American actor
Brett Halsey, and moved with him to Rome, where they married in December 1964. In 1970, she moved to the USA where she appeared in shows in Las Vegas and played in television series such as Columbo. Brühl returned to Germany to play in two further Immenhof sequels in 1973/1974, Zwillinge vom Immenhof and Frühling auf Immenhof. She appeared in The Eiger Sanction in 1975.

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Elke Sommer (born 5 November 1940), born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.

Career
Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife. After World War II, the family was evacuated to Erlangen, a small university town in Southern Germany, where, despite their lack of money, she attended the prestigious Gymnasium (high school) in Erlangen. However her father’s death when she was 14 precluded further formal education, and she moved to England to be an au pair, to perfect her English and earn a living.

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She was spotted by film director Vittorio De Sica whilst on holiday in Italy, and started appearing in films there in the late 1950s. She quickly became a noted sex symbol and moved to Hollywood in the early 1960s. She also became one of the most popular pin-up girls of the time, and posed for several pictorials in Playboy Magazine (September 1964 and December 1967).

She became one of the top movie actresses of the 1960s and made 99 movie and television appearances between 1959 and 2005, including A Shot in the Dark (1964) with Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, The Art of Love (1965) with James Garner and Dick Van Dyke, The Oscar (1966) with Stephen Boyd, Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966) with Bob Hope, the Bulldog Drummond extravaganza Deadlier Than the Male (1966), and The Wrecking Crew (1969) with Dean Martin; Sommer was the leading lady in each of these films.

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In 1964, she won the Golden Globe Awards as Most Promising Newcomer Actress for The Prize, a film she co-starred with Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson.

In 1972, she starred in two Italian horror movies directed by Mario Bava, which have both become cult classics Baron Blood and Lisa and the Devil. The latter film was never theatrically distributed in its original form; it was later re-edited (with 1975 footage inserted) to make a very different movie called House of Exorcism (an Exorcist rip-off). Elke went back to Italy to star in the additional scenes that were inserted into the movie by its producer, against the wishes of the director.

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In 1975, Peter Rogers cast her in Carry On Behind as the Russian Professor Vrooshka. She became the Carry On’s highest paid performer, at £30,000 (an honour shared with Phil Silvers for Follow That Camel).

Sommer also performed successfully as a singer, making several albums.

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