Mariska Magdolina Hargitay (born January 23, 1964) is an American actress, best known for her role as Detective Olivia Benson on the television program Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Hargitay is a winner of a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.
Hargitay was born at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Jayne Mansfield, an actress and 1950s-era sex symbol, and Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. Her...
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Mariska Magdolina Hargitay (born January 23, 1964) is an American actress, best known for her role as Detective Olivia Benson on the television program Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Hargitay is a winner of a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.
Hargitay was born at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California, the daughter of Jayne Mansfield, an actress and 1950s-era sex symbol, and Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. Her first and middle names are Hungarian and refer to Mary Magdalene (Mariska is a diminutive of Maria). Her family name means "of Hargita". Hargitay has two half-sisters, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Tina Hargitay; two brothers, Miklós and Zoltán Hargitay; and a half-brother, Antonio Ottaviano (a.k.a. Tony Cimber), a former director whose works include the female wrestling show Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
Hargitay's parents had divorced in May 1963, but a judge later found their Mexican divorce invalid. They had reconciled a few months before...
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