Mariska Hargitay's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Detective O… Tequila and Bonetti Officer Ang… Can't Hurry Love Didi Edelst… Prince Street Detective N… Downtown (1986) Jesse Smith

Main Movie Roles

BIOGRAPHY:

Mariska (Ma-rish-ka) Magdolna Hargitay (born January 23, 1964), in Santa Monica, California. Her parents are 'Mickey Hargitay' and 'Jayne Mansfield'. She is the youngest of their three children. In June 1967, Mariska and her brothers Zoltan and Mickey Jr. were in the back seat of a car when it was involved in the fatal accident which killed her mother. The children escaped with minor injuries.

Mariska majored in theater at UCLA but dropped out before graduating. Her first motion picture feature was the cult favorite, Ghoulies (1985), where she gave a memorable performance as Donna. She also appeared in Leaving Las Vegas (1995), credited as 'Hooker at the bar', and in Lake Placid (1999) as Myra Okubo. Her latest movie, Plain Truth (2004), in which she plays attorney Ellie Harrison will air in the fall of 2004.

In 1999 she was cast in the role of Det. Olivia Benson in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), the first spinoff from the excellent franchise of Law & Order (1990) which also has two other spinoffs, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001) and Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005). This show deals with sex crimes and the detectives who solve these cases.

Mariska speaks English, Hungarian, French and Italian. She married actor 'Peter Hermann' (August 28, 2004). They divide their time between New York and Los Angeles.


TRIVIA:

• Has a zig-zag scar down the side of her head from the 1967 crash that killed her mother, 'Jayne Mansfield' (qv). She was only three years old when she was involved in the crash and has no memory of the event.
• She learned to swim at the age of two and later swam for her high school.
• (14th September 2006) Her father 'Mickey Hargitay' (qv) died after a lengthy illness at the age of 80.
• Her publicist is 'Gary Mantoosh' (qv).
• Spoke in 2007 for Girl Scouts of Greater New York Scholars Program about her career and how she became who she is.
• Is half-sister of Tina Hargitay (b. 1949) through her father's first wife Mary Birge.
• Good friends with actress 'Hilary Swank' (qv). Hilary stays with Mariska when on location in New York.
• One of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People (2005)