Mariska Hargitay

Hargitay was born at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of actress and 1950s-era sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. Her father was the Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay. Her first and middle names are Hungarian and refer to Mary Magdalene (Mariska is a diminutive of Mary). She was raised Catholic. She has two older brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, and three half-siblings, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Antonio "Tony" Cimber (from her mother's first and third marriages, respectively) and Tina Hargitay (from her father's first marriage).

Hargitay's parents divorced in May 1963, but a judge later found their Mexican divorce invalid. They reconciled a few months before Hargitay's birth in January 1964, but soon separated again. In August 1964, Hargitay's mother successfully petitioned the court to rule the Mexican divorce legal. A few weeks later, Mansfield married the director Matt Cimber, who had directed her in a 1964 production of the William Inge play Bus Stop. By the summer of 1966, however, Mansfield and Cimber had filed for divorce. On June 29, 1967, Mansfield was in an automobile accident on a stretch of U.S. Route 90 between New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The accident ripped off the top of the car, instantly killing Mansfield;[5] her boyfriend, Sam Brody; and the driver. Asleep in the back of the vehicle, Mariska, then three-and-a-half years old, was left with a zigzag scar on one side of her head. Her brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, escaped with minor injuries. After the death of their mother, the three siblings were raised by their father and his third wife, Ellen Siano.[6][1] Hargitay dislikes comparisons with her famous mother and, at age 18, said, "My dad was Mr. Universe, so it would be fun for me to be Miss Universe".[7] Hargitay has said that the early loss of her mother left "a hole in my life that won't ever be filled. I will never get over it. I will always be a girl who lost her mom".[5]

While a student at her Catholic secondary school, Marymount High School, Hargitay was active in cheerleading, student government, athletics, and the theater program.[8] She enjoyed acting and enrolled at UCLA after graduation from high school in 1982. That same year, Hargitay was crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA.[9] By the time she was a freshman in college, Hargitay had an agent and several small roles to her credit. She attended UCLA School of Theater Film and Television where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.[10][11] She left before completing her degree.[1]

Hargitay attended Groundlings Theatre and School in Los Angeles.[12]

After Hargitay was crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA,[9] she competed in the Miss California USA pageant the following year and placed fourth runner-up to Julie Hayek, who was later crowned Miss USA.[13] In 1984, Hargitay appeared in Ronnie Milsap's music video for "She Loves My Car" (The first country music video to appear on MTV).[14] A year later she had a small role in the horror film Ghoulies.[15]

Hargitay said in 1986 that she never thought about doing television until a role on the one-hour adventure drama series Downtown was offered.[15] In fact, life was extremely tough for her trying to start her career as a Hollywood actor.[5] Her entire life she was constantly being compared to her mother, people would mention that her hair color should be different simply because of her mother's hair color.[5] In 1988, she had a recurring role as Carly Fixx in the soap opera Falcon Crest.[14] She portrayed police officer Angela Garcia in the 1992 series Tequila and Bonetti and appeared in an episode of the fourth season of Seinfeld. Two years later, Hargitay portrayed Didi Edelstein, the sexy next-door neighbor, in the 1995 sitcom Can't Hurry Love, which starred Nancy McKeon. In 1997, Hargitay played detective Nina Echeverria on the drama series Prince Street, and had a recurring role as Cynthia Hooper during the fourth season of ER.

Hargitay has appeared on numerous other television programs, including: Freddy's Nightmares – A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series, Ellen, All-American Girl, Baywatch, Cracker, Gabriel's Fire, In the Heat of the Night, The Single Guy, Wiseguy, and thirtysomething. Her voice is featured on the 2005 video game True Crime: New York City.

Hargitay also had a minor role in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas. She briefly replaced Gabrielle Fitzpatrick as Dulcea in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, although her scenes were cut from the film when Fitzpatrick recovered from her surgery and returned to the film.[16]

Hargitay on set of season 12 of Law & Order: SVU in August 2010

In January 2007 she and her son, August, appeared in a Got Milk? advertisement.[17]

Hargitay in May 2007

Hargitay speaks five languages: English, French, Hungarian, Spanish, and Italian.[30]

On August 28, 2004, in Santa Barbara, California, Hargitay married Peter Hermann, an actor whom she met on the set of Law & Order: SVU,[31][32] on which he plays the recurring role of Defense Attorney Trevor Langan. On June 28, 2006, Hargitay gave birth to their son, August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, by an emergency caesarean section.[33][34] In April 2011, she and her husband adopted a baby girl, Amaya Josephine, and attended her birth.[32][35] In October 2011, she and her husband adopted a baby boy, Andrew Nicolas Hargitay Hermann, who had been born in mid-2011.[36][37]

Hargitay's father died in 2006 from multiple myeloma in Los Angeles, California, at age 80.[38][39]

Hargitay reading Oh! The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss at the 2010 White House Easter Egg Roll

Hargitay is the founder and former president of the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization established in 2004 to provide support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.[43][44] According to Hargitay, she was inspired by an encounter with a school of dolphins that surrounded her while she was swimming off the coast of Hawaii at the age of 15. The encounter, which had ignited profound spiritual feelings within her, was one that Hargitay hoped to share with others. As of November 2010, the Joyful Heart Foundation has sent over 5,000 women and children on therapeutic programs in New York, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, which combine yoga, meditation, massage, journaling, and swimming with dolphins.[19] Hargitay said,

I started getting fan mail from survivors who felt a connection to Olivia. In many of these letters, people would disclose their personal stories of abuse—some for the very first time. I remember getting the sense that many were living in isolation with so much shame, but the shame belonged to the perpetrators. I wanted to help find a way to help people reclaim their lives and live them with a renewed sense of possibility and hope. And that's what we work to do every day at Joyful Heart.[45]

Since Hargitay received these letters from women, she knew that she had to use her platform to do something really special.[5] Her character, Olivia Benson, was heavily involved in rape and domestic violence cases in New York; in many episodes she defended the women, because she knew the trauma that they had experienced.[5] Some women who watched the show felt a connection with her, which led them to send Hargitay letters because they thought she could do something with them. She, in fact, did; Hargitay became a certified rape counselor.[5] With this, she was able to talk to these women, make them feel better, and let them know that they are not alone; she helped the victims to be able to live their lives again.[5]

According to Hargitay, the Foundation has raised $20 million and helped approximately 5,000 survivors as of April 2011.[46] Reference to the Joyful Heart Foundation was worked into episodes of Special Victims Unit, via a necklace containing two pendants representing the Foundation that Hargitay's character began wearing in the show's 13th season.[47] The Foundation partners with several brands to create products supporting their cause, including Me&Ro, Michael Stars, and AZIAM's Wife Lover Tanks.[48]

Back in November 2009, Hargitay and the Joyful Heart Foundation built healing and wellness kits for women that suffered domestic violence attacks and were currently in the Los Angeles County's domestic violence shelters.[49] They created enough kits to give one to each of about 600 women.[49] In California, the domestic violence services budget was in a major crisis, and shelters were forced to turn women away because they couldn't afford to keep them. Mariska and her foundation fought for this cause and donated money to show how important it is for these women to have shelters that they can go to in order to feel safe.[49]

Hargitay has worked with Michigan Police and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to raise awareness about the statistics of untested rape kits. While planning to produce a documentary called Shelved about the thousands of untested rape kits, Hargitay called this lack of testing "the clearest and most shocking demonstration of how we regard these crimes in our country."[50]

Hargitay appeared in the 17th season of NBC's The More You Know public service announcements in 2006,[51] and again in the spring of 2009.[52] She is an honorary board member director of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.[53]

On September 27, 2011, Hargitay donated $100,000 to her alma mater, the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television for scholarship.[54]

In 2012, Hargitay campaigned for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).[55]

Hargitay won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her role as Detective Olivia Benson. She received UCLA's TFT Distinguished Alumni Award in 2011 and was honored at the school's June commencement ceremony.[54] Hargitay was awarded with the 2,511th star of the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 8, 2013. Her star was placed next to the star of her mother, which is located at 6328 Hollywood Boulevard.[60]

All of her following awards and nominations are for the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, except for the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards, won by Taylor Swift and all of the celebrities that appeared in the music video for her song "Bad Blood".[61]

• D'Arminio, Aubry. Mariska Hargitay Biography. Allrovi (All Media Guide). Circa 2007. Accessed January 24, 2010.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mariska Hargitay.

• Joyful Heart Foundation, founded by Hargitay
• Mariska Hargitay at IMDb