Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay was an actor and Mr. Universe 1955.
Born in Budapest, Hungary, he was married to Jayne Mansfield, and is the father of actress
Mariska Hargitay.
During their marriage, Hargitay and Mansfield made four movies together, Will Success Spoil
Rock Hunter?, The Loves of Hercules, Promises!
Promises!, and L'Amore Primitivo.
Early life and sports career
Born and raised in Hungary, Hargitay performed in an acrobatic act with his brothers.
He also played soccer and became a champion speed skater.
Hargitay fled Hungary after the war and moved to the United States.
He settled in Cleveland, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Birge and worked
as a plumber and carpenter.
He was inspired to begin bodybuilding after seeing a magazine cover of Steve Reeves, famed
for playing Hercules.
Hargitay became NABBA Mr. Universe in 1955.
After winning Mr. Universe, he joined Mae West's muscleman revue at New York's Latin
Quarter, where he met Jayne Mansfield, his wife from 1958 to 1964.
He is the first recipient of the Joe Weider Lifetime Achievement Award.
Acting career Hargitay's first film role came when Jayne
Mansfield demanded he be cast in her newest movie, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?.
The two had met the year before at The Mae West Show at the Latin Quarter.
When Jayne noticed Mickey performing, she told the waiter, "I’ll have a steak and
that tall man on the left."
The two fell head over heels in love and were never seen apart.
20th Century Fox didn't want Hargitay in Rock Hunter, because they hated Mansfield's view
of Hargitay as her "only" lover; Fox liked their sex symbols to be single.
In 1960, Jayne and Mickey would play the lead roles in The Loves of Hercules.
The film was shot in Italy, and to this day hasn't been released in US movie theaters.
Over the next few years Mickey and Jayne, together, would appear in, Promises!
Promises! and L'Amore Primitivo.
In 1965, Mickey, only, would have the lead role in Bloody Pit of Horror.
He also acted in Hungarian director György Szomjas' 1988 film, Mr. Universe.
Hargitay's final acting appearance was in an episode of his daughter Mariska's series,
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In the episode "Control", Hargitay played a man on a subway station escalator who witnesses
the aftermath of a brutal assault.
Mariska's character, Olivia Benson, is later seen interviewing him.
Personal life
His first marriage was to Mary Birge.
Together they had a daughter Tina Hargitay.
They divorced on September 6, 1956.
Hargitay and Mansfield married on January 13, 1958.
They had three children: Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay, Zoltán Anthony Hargitay, and Mariska
Magdolna Hargitay.
Hargitay remodeled much of his and Mansfield's Beverly Hills mansion, "The Pink Palace",
building its famous heart-shaped swimming pool.
In November 2002, the house was razed by developers who had purchased it from Engelbert Humperdinck.
In May 1963, Mickey and Jayne divorced in Juarez, Mexico.
The divorce was ruled invalid, and the two reconciled in October 1963.
After Mariska's birth, Mansfield sued for the Juarez divorce to be declared legal and
won.
The divorce was recognized in the United States on August 26, 1964.
After Mansfield's death in a car crash on June 29, 1967, Hargitay sued Jayne's estate
for over $5,000 to support the children.
In their divorce decree, Jayne had agreed to pay child support and to give Mickey approximately
$70,000 in cash and property.
Hargitay married again in September 1967 to Ellen Siano, his wife until his death.
Arnold Schwarzenegger played the role of Mickey Hargitay in the 1980 TV-movie The Jayne Mansfield
Story.
Hargitay's nephew and godson Eddie Hargitay is also an actor.
Death He died in Los Angeles on September 14, 2006,
aged 80, from multiple myeloma.
The Los Angeles Times noted in Hargitay's obituary:
Filmography References and footnotes
External links
Mickey Hargitay at the Internet Movie Database "Actor Mickey Hargitay dies at 80".
BBC.
2006-09-19.
Retrieved 2006-12-20.
Silverman, Stephen M..
"Mariska's Dad Mickey Hargitay Dies at 80".
People Magazine.
Retrieved 2006-12-20.
"Mickey Hargitay, Father Of Mariska, Dies".
Access Hollywood.
2006-09-18.
Archived from the original on 2007-12-05.
Retrieved 2007-09-29.