See How Much Mariska Hargitay Looks Like Mom Jayne Mansfield in This 1960 Throwback
The SVU actress' mom was Hollywood starlet Jayne Mansfield, while her father was actor and former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay.
Mariska Hargitay takes after her late mother Jayne Mansfield in more ways than one. Not only did the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star follow on in her acting footsteps, she also inherited her momma’s gorgeous features.
Case in point: When Hargitay shared an adorable throwback photo of her mom holding her older brother, Zoltan, when he was just a newborn, Hargitay's fans couldn't get over how similar they look.
"You’re as beautiful as your mother was, Mariska," one commented on the photo from 1960, while another added, "Beautiful!! Like mother like daughter!" One more commented on Hargitay's 2024 Instagram post, "WOW! Y’all could be sisters!!" See the amazing black and white photo here.
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Read on to learn all about Hargitay’s mom and see more photos of their uncanny resemblance.
Who is Mariska Hargitay’s mom Jayne Mansfield?
Hargitay always has had showbiz in her DNA. Her father, Mickey Hargitay, was a former Mr. Universe and passed away in 2006 at the age of 80. Her mother, Jayne Mansfield, was a well-known Hollywood starlet with a passion for acting. Often seen in the same light as actresses like Marilyn Monroe, Mansfield absolutely passed on her acting skills to Hargitay, who eventually turned into an iconic career on SVU.
Mansfield was tragically killed in a car accident in 1967 when she was 34 years old. Hargitay, 3 years old at the time, and her brothers were sleeping in the backseat and were injured in the accident.
Although the loss of her mother at a young age is catastrophic for any family, in an interview with People in 2018, Hargitay credited her father and siblings for staying closer and stronger than ever after the accident.
“The beauty is that families are made in so many different ways, and that was my reality as a child,” she explained. “Growing up, my family was made in such an interesting and unique way, and now I have that with my own family, and so I understand it. It’s been amazing.”
In an interview with Glamour, Hargitay also shared what she's learned from experiencing such a tragedy as a young girl. “I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that sh*t happens and there’s no guarantees, and we keep going," she said 2021. "And then we transform it. That’s been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life."
Mariska Hargitay’s mom Jayne Mansfield was a popular actress in '50s and '60s
In the 1950s and 1960s, Mansfield rose to fame as a Playboy playmate and an actress, with her first role in 1995’s Female Jungle. She later starred in films including The Girl Can't Help, The Wayward Bus, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Kiss Them for Me, The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, among many others.
Harigtay has described her mother’s career in the entertainment industry as “ahead of her time.”
“My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamorous sex symbol — but people didn’t know that she played the violin and had a 160 IQ and had five kids and loved dogs,” she told People in 2018. “She was just so ahead of her time. She was an inspiration, she had this appetite for life, and I think I share that with her.”
“Someone once said about [remembering] my mother: ‘All you have to do is look in the mirror,’” she told the magazine. “She’s with me still."
How many siblings does Mariska Hargitay have?
Hargitay has five siblings: brothers Mickey Hargitay, Jr., Zoltan Hargitay, and Tony Cimber, and two sisters, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Tina West.
Mickey and Zoltan were born out of the relationship between Hargitay's parents, while her other brother and sisters are technically her half-siblings. Nevertheless, the family is still incredibly close. For example, in 2024, Hargitay visited her brother Mickey at his successful Los Angeles-based flower shop, and in true sister fashion, she couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures with him.
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As a daughter, sister, wife, and mother of three, family has always been Hargitay's focus. In fact, in a 2024 interview with TODAY, Hargitay said she's "always looking for signs" that her mother is still with her today.
Originally published Aug 2, 2024.
