Mariska Hargitay’s famous actor parents: Meet Mickey Hargitay & Jayne Mansfield, who died when she was 3

In the 1950s, Jayne Mansfield, a provocateur of her era, rose to fame in Hollywood. Mariska Hargitay, her three-year-old daughter, was also a passenger in the car at the time of the fatal car accident that claimed her life in 1967.

Mariska was lucky to be alive and well. She has gained fame as an actor in the modern era. She resembles her mommy remarkably!

For many actors and actresses, becoming a Hollywood superstar requires years and years of hard effort. The majority of famous people would undoubtedly agree that it is worthwhile in the end, despite the fact that success requires a lot of sacrifice and time, patience, and willpower.

Jayne Mansfield
Nonetheless, it took Jayne Mansfield less than ten years to achieve superstardom. She was a major sex symbol during the 1950s and 1960s because to her roles in multiple blockbuster films.

At times, she was known as “the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe”, because of the roles she was offered, but despite the roles – many of which would fit into the “dumb blonde” category – she wasn’t like that at all.

A vehicle accident in 1967 tragically claimed the life of the mother of five children. But today, her kids are working hard to carry on her legacy.

This is the tale of the vibrant life of Jayne Mansfield and Mariska Hargitay, who resembles her mother remarkably.

Jayne Mansfield – childhood

Jayne Mansfield lived a glamorous yet tragic existence.

Throughout her early years, Vera Jayne Palmer, who was born on April 19, 1933, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, was exposed to the more artistic side of life. She received instruction in singing and violin as a young child from her musician father Herbert.

Nevertheless, tragedy struck Jayne Mansfield at the young age of three when her father passed away from a heart attack when the family was traveling. Her mother Vera, a former schoolteacher, was abandoned with her child and had to go back to work to help maintain her family.

“Something went out of my life,” she said. “My earliest memories are the best. I always try to remember the good times when Daddy was alive.”

Jayne’s mother wed a second husband in 1939, and the family relocated to Dallas, Texas. Jayne Mansfield had aspirations of becoming a Hollywood star at the same time. She attended every one of Judy Garland’s movies and even went so far as to dress like the legendary performer.

Moving to Los Angeles

Mansfield hadn’t even received her high school diploma when she found her first significant other. The future icon wed Paul Mansfield, then 20 years old, in 1950. Together, they departed for Southern Methodist University to pursue acting studies. Jayne gave birth to her first daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield, just a year after they got married.

Mansfield joined a Miss California competition after taking a summer course at UCLA in Los Angeles, though she eventually withdrew. The family made the choice to attend the University of Texas in Austin, where Jayne appeared in a number of plays.

It in and of itself turned out to be a lot of fun, but Hollywood remained her goal. The family felt it was time since, of course, you had to be there to succeed in Hollywood. In 1954, Mansfield moved to Los Angeles with her family.

Naturally, breaking into the profession isn’t simple, as is the case for every aspiring actor or actress. When Jayne started her modeling career, her figure quickly became not just a major problem but also the focal point of her life.

Because casting directors believed that the future pinup icon’s voluptuous, attractive form was far too seductive for a commercial or advertisement, she had difficulty finding work.. It actually came to a point where she was cut out of her very first ad, was a print ad for General Electric.

Start of Hollywood career

Jayne wanted to be on screen, and soon got her big chance. She went to audition for both Paramount and Warner Brothers studios, though neither of them wanted her.

Yet while she was reading at Paramount, the head of casting, Milton Lewis, did something that would change Jayne’s perception of herself.

”I had been to three different universities and two or three dramatic schools before I went to Hollywood, preparing myself for my hoped career as an actress. I did a soliloquy for Joan of Arc for Milton Lewis who was head of casting at Paramount Studios in order to audition. And he seemed to think I was wasting my ”obvious talents”. He lightened my hair and tightened my dresses, and this is the result.”

Jayne Mansfield wanted to compete with Marilyn Monroe, the biggest and brightest Hollywood star at the time. But at the same time as her career in Hollywood was beginning, her husband Paul had simply had enough. The couple divorced in 1955, and their daughter stayed with Jayne in Los Angeles.

Jayne’s career eventually took off when she landed a role in the low-budget film Female Jungle (1955), which gave her plenty of exposure. The same year she’d been named “Playmate of the Month” and also been on the cover of Playboy Magazine.

“Marilyn Monroe King-Size”

Her new style – the pinup, provocative blonde bombshell – was supposed to cement her status as the new Marilyn Monroe, and in a way, she definitely succeeded. Pink proved to be her color, with Jayne even buying a pink Cadillac to drive.

Studios wanted more of her and soon she was signed. Fox began to market her as the “Marilyn Monroe King-Size,” and her success grew. By that point she wasn’t just an actress; she was a sex symbol of the 1950s.

One journalist even claimed: “She suffered so many on-stage strap and zipper mishaps that nudity was, for her, a professional hazard.”

Jayne gained even more attention following her appearance in Fox’s 1957 comedy blockbuster Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. That same year, she received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. The following year, she starred alongside Kenneth More in the Western The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958).

Jayne scored several other – for the time being – provocative roles, including The Burglar (1957) and Too Hot to Handle (1960). Sadly, however, she was labelled “The Poor Man’s Marilyn Monroe”.