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:

• On one occasion, she came upon a pregnant woman who collapsed while in New York City. When no one else came to the woman's aid, she lapsed into her character on _"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (1999)_ (qv) while aiding the victim.
• Good friends with actress 'Hilary Swank' (qv). Hilary stays with Mariska when on location in New York.
• Won the Miss Beverly Hills 1982 pagent.
• She learned to swim at the age of two and later swam for her high school.
• Founder and President of a non-profit organization to aid the victims of rape - The Joyful Heart Foundation.
• Speaks French, English, Hungarian, Spanish and Italian.
• 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.
• Daughter of 'Jayne Mansfield' (qv) and 'Mickey Hargitay' (qv); sister of 'Zoltan Hargitay' (qv) (b. 1 August 1960) and (Miklos) 'Mickey Hargitay Jr.' (qv) (b. 21 December 1958). Half-sister of 'Jayne Marie Mansfield' (qv) (Jayne's daughter from her first marriage, b. 8 November 1950),Antonio Raphael Ottaviano Cimber a.k.a. 'Tony Cimber' (qv) (from her mother's third marriage,b. 18 October 1965), and of Tina Hargitay (from her father's first marriage, b.1949).