Biography

Actress and writer Elke Arendt was trained in ballet at the Bavarian State Opera from the age of seven. Having taking acting lessons in Munich, she trod the boards on various stages in Germany from the mid-1950s and made her screen debut, aged sixteen, as Snow White in the fairy tale Schneewittchen und die sieben Zwerge (1955). This was filmed, rather suitably, at King Ludwig's picturesque Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria's Swabia region. Arendt next featured in the children's fantasy Die Heinzelmännchen (1956) and, in similar vein, in Rübezahl - Herr der Berge (1957), a story based on the folkloric tale of a mercurial spirit inhabiting the Giant Mountains (Riesengebirge) on the boundary between Silesia and Bohemia. All three of these films were directed by Erich Kobler who seems to have had a penchant for fantasy.

As a supporting player, Arendt had further roles in comedies, musicals and the occasional drama, usually cast as maids, waitresses or secretaries. She also popped up in the Italian peplum adventure The Fury of Hercules (1962), of interest purely for featuring the renowned French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg as chief villain. Towards the end of her relatively brief tenure in films, Arendt had a rare turn as the female lead in a crime thriller, Nebelmörder (1964), starring Hansjörg Felmy as an inspector investigating teenagers involved in a series of small town stabbings.

Leaving the screen in 1966, Arendt returned to the stage and worked in radio plays as both performer and writer, latterly also transitioning to stage direction. After her second marriage to the actor Stephan Orlac, she has become known as Elke Orlac. Under this name she published a novel in 2019, titled 'Louise, Hofnärrin zu Weimar'. Set in 1775, it focuses on the personality and influence of Luise von Göchhausen, noted wit, friend of Goethe and Chief Lady-in-Waiting to Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis