Mariska Hargitay is an Emmy award-winning American actress of TV's Law & Order: SVU fame.

Mariska's films include Lake Placid (1999), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Bank Robber (1993), Welcome to 18 (1986), Jocks (1987), and Ghoulies (1985). Her best-known television roles are Detective Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-present), and Cynthia Hooper on ER (1997-98). Other TV credits include Falcon Crest (1988), Tequila and Bonetti (1992), Downtown (1986), and Prince Street (1997).

She is the youngest daughter of '50s blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield, who died in a horrific auto accident in 1967, and former actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay.

Mariska (ma-RISH'-ka) met her husband, Peter Hermann, on the set of her NBC television series Law & Order: SVU after he joined the show in the recurring role of defense attorney Trevor Langen. Their first child was born June 28th, 2006, via C-section, and weighed in at a robust 10 lbs. 9 oz.

Awards:
Golden Globe - Best Actress in a Drama Series - presented on January 17th, 2005
Emmy award - Lead Actress in a Drama - presented on August 27th, 2006

Full or original name at birth: Mariska Magdolna Hargitay*

Date and place of birth: January 23, 1964, St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, California, U.S.A.

Date, place and cause of death: (Alive as of 2012)

Marriage
Spouse: Peter Hermann (m. August 28, 2004 - present)
Wedding took place at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara, California.

Children
Son: August Miklos Friedrich Hermann (b. June 28, 2006, at 3:21 p.m., Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California)
Son: Andrew Nicolas Hargitay Hermann (adopted in 2011)
Daughter: Amaya Josephine Hermann (adopted in 2011)

Parents
Father: Mickey Hargitay (an actor/bodybuilder) (b. January 6, 1926, Budapest, Hungary - d. September 14, 2006, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, of multiple myeloma)
Mother: Jayne Mansfield (an actress) (b. April 19, 1933, at 5:40 p.m., Bryn Mawr Hospital, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania - d. June 29, 1967, at 2:25 a.m., Highway 90 near the Rigolets Bridge, near New Orleans, Louisiana, in an auto accident)

* Mariska was named for her paternal grandmother. Magdolna is the Hungarian form of Magdalene (Mickey Hargitay's mother was Hungarian), and is not spelled with an "i" as some sources erroneously report.

The most in-depth of more than three dozen sources consulted for this profile:
The Tragic Secret Life of Jayne Mansfield, by Raymond Strait (1974)
Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties, by Martha Saxton (1975).

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