Mickey Hargitay
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Miklós Károly "Mickey" Hargitay (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006) was a Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder.<ref name=lat>Template:Cite news</ref>
Born in Budapest, Hargitay moved to the United States in 1947 and eventually became a American citizen.<ref name="citizen">Template:Cite journal</ref> He was married to actress Jayne Mansfield and is the putative father of actress Mariska Hargitay (her biological father was later revealed to be singer Nelson Sardelli).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During their marriage, Hargitay and Mansfield made four movies together: Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Loves of Hercules (1960), Promises! Promises! (1963), and Primitive Love (1964).
Early life and early careerEdit
Miklós Károly Hargitay (or Hargitai) was born in Budapest, Hungary, on January 6, 1926. He was the son of Ferenc and Mária (Rothsischer) Hargitay (or Hargitai).<ref name="auto">Template:Cite news</ref> Hargitay was one of four children of an athletic father. He and his brothers were all brought up as athletes. During his youth, Hargitay was part of an acrobatic act with his brothers. The act was so popular that the brothers performed throughout all Hungary, including the largest opera house in Budapest. After being introduced to the sport by his brother, Hargitay began competing in speed skating. In 1946, he won the Middle European championship at 500 and 1,500 meters, and placed second in the 5,000 meter race.<ref name="citizen" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was also a proficient football player,<ref name=lat /><ref name="independent" /> and was an underground fighter during World War II.<ref name="independent" /><ref name="guardian">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1947, aged 21, Hargitay left Hungary to emigrate to the United States<ref name="auto"/> to avoid being drafted into military service by the Soviet Union.<ref name="auto1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Hungarian People's Republic was then part of the Eastern Bloc, with close ties to communist Russia. He settled in Cleveland, where he worked as a plumber and carpenter and also performed in an acrobatic act with his first wife, Mary Birge.<ref name="independent" /> He was inspired to begin bodybuilding after seeing a magazine cover featuring Steve Reeves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Hargitay won the National Amateur Body-Builders' Association (NABBA) Mr. Universe award in 1955.<ref name="guardian" />
Hargitay is credited with influencing the enormous interest in physical fitness prevalent in the US during the 1950s. He appeared as a pin-up model in fitness magazines.<ref name="independent" /> After Mae West saw his photo on a magazine cover, Hargitay joined West's muscleman revue.<ref name="guardian" />
Acting careerEdit
Hargitay's first film role came when Jayne Mansfield demanded that he be cast in her movie, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite journal</ref> The two fell in love and were described as inseparable. 20th Century Fox did not want Hargitay to appear in Rock Hunter because they disliked Mansfield's view of Hargitay as her "only" lover; Fox preferred their sex symbols to be single.Template:Cn
In 1960, Hargitay and Mansfield played the lead roles in The Loves of Hercules.<ref name="auto1" /> The film was shot in Italy, and has never been released in movie theaters in the United States, though it is available on Netflix under the title Hercules vs. Hydra and under its original title as episode 1108 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (2017).Template:Cn Over the next four years, Hargitay and Mansfield would appear together in Promises! Promises! (1963) and Primitive Love (1964). In 1965, Hargitay played the lead role in Bloody Pit of Horror without Mansfield.<ref name="independent" />
Hargitay's acting career was not limited to the United States; he also appeared in many Italian productions,<ref name="guardian" /> and acted in Hungarian director György Szomjas' 1988 film, Mr. Universe.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In 2003, Hargitay guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the series in which his daughter Mariska stars. He performed as a witness to a violent crime.<ref name="auto1"/>
Personal lifeEdit
Template:Multiple image Hargitay's first wife was fellow acrobat Mary Birge. Hargitay had a daughter, Tina, with Birge in 1949.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hargitay and Birge later divorced.<ref name="auto1"/>
Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield met in 1956 while he was performing in The Mae West Show at the Latin Quarter. When Mansfield noticed Hargitay performing, she allegedly told the waiter, "I'll have a steak and that tall man on the left."<ref name="auto2"/> The couple married on January 13, 1958 at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. They had three children: Miklós, Zoltán, and (putatively) Mariska. Mariska Hargitay grew up to be an actress, starring on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.<ref name="auto" /> Hargitay remodeled much of his and Mansfield's Beverly Hills mansion, known as "The Pink Palace",<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Jayne Mansfield Pink Palace</ref> building its famous heart-shaped swimming pool. In November 2002, the house was razed by developers who had purchased it from Engelbert Humperdinck.Template:Cn In May 2025, longtime rumors that Brazilian-Italian singer-comedian Nelson Sardelli, who Mansfeld had an affair with during the time she was in the process of divorcing Hargitay between 1963 and 1964, was Mariska's biological father were confirmed to be true, though Mariska assumed Hargitay was her biological father until she was 25.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Despite not being her biological father, Mariska still had loyalty to Mickey and accepted him as her father.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In May 1963, Hargitay and Mansfield filed for divorce in Ciudad Juárez. The divorce was ruled invalid, and the two reconciled in October 1963. After Mariska's birth, Mansfield sued for the Juárez divorce to be declared legal and ultimately won. The divorce was recognized in the United States on August 26, 1964. After Mansfield's death in a car crash on June 29, 1967, Hargitay sued Mansfield's estate for over US$275,000 ($Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) to support the children. In their divorce decree, Mansfield had agreed to pay child support, as well as to give Hargitay approximately $70,000 ($Template:Format price in Template:Inflation/yearTemplate:Inflation-fn) in cash and property.Template:Cn
Hargitay married Ellen Siano on April 14, 1968. Hargitay and Siano remained married until his death.<ref name="independent">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="auto" /><ref name="auto1"/>
DeathEdit
On September 14, 2006, Hargitay died in Los Angeles, California, aged 80, from multiple myeloma. In Hargitay's obituary, the Los Angeles Times quoted bodybuilding historian Gene Mozee as stating the following: "Walter Winchell once said that what [President] Eisenhower did for golf, Mickey Hargitay did for bodybuilding, because he brought it to the forefront... Back in those days, bodybuilding was thought of as a freakish, unusual activity that wasn't popular with the general public... At that time, athletic coaches discouraged lifting weights, thinking you'd become musclebound. And along came Mickey Hargitay, a great all-around athlete".<ref name=lat/>
In popular cultureEdit
Hargitay was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1980 television film The Jayne Mansfield Story.<ref name="guardian" />
FilmographyEdit
FilmEdit
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? | Bobo Branigansky |
| Slaughter on Tenth Avenue | Big John | |
| 1960 | The Loves of Hercules | Hercules |
| 1963 | Promises! Promises! | King Banner |
| 1964 | Primitive Love | Hotel Bell Captain |
| Revenge of The Gladiators | Fabius | |
| 1965 | Stranger in Sacramento | Mike Jordan |
| Sheriff Won't Shoot | Allan Day | |
| Bloody Pit of Horror | Travis Anderson | |
| 1966 | Three Bullets for Ringo | Ringo Carson |
| Sette donne d'oro contro due 07 | Mark Davis | |
| 1967 | Cjamango | Clinton |
| 1970 | Ringo, It's Massacre Time | Mike Wood |
| 1971 | Lady Frankenstein | Captain Harris |
| 1972 | Delirium | Herbert Lyutak |
| 1973 | Black Magic Rites | Jack Nelson |
| 2001 | Szemétdomb | Mickey |
TelevisionEdit
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Wild Wild West | Monk | Episode: "The Night of the Fugitives" |
| 2003 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Grandfather on escalator | Episode: "Control"; final appearance |
References and footnotesEdit
External linksEdit
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