Born:
January 23, 1964
in
Los Angeles
Best Known For:
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.
Early-life:
Mariska Magdolna Hargitay was born on January 23, 1964, in Los Angeles. Her mother was film star Jayne Mansfield, her father was the Hungarian bodybuilder-turned-actor Mickey Hargitay. She has two brothers and three half-siblings. On June 29, 1967, she was travelling in a car with her mother when their vehicle was involved in a road accident. Mansfield, their driver and another passenger were killed. Hargitay can't remember the incident, but she was left scarred. She was then raised by her father, and later studied acting at university, but dropped out before graduating.
Career:
In 1982, Hargitay won the Miss Beverly Hills pageant. A year later, she first appeared in Falcon Crest, becoming a cast regular in 1988. She made her big-screen debut in 1985's Ghoulies. Various movies and TV series followed, including Downtown, Jocks, Baywatch, thirtysomething and The Advocate's Devil. Playing Dr Greene's love interest in several episodes of ER in the late 1990s finally got her noticed, and led to a starring role in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, which began in 1999, the same year she featured in box office hit Lake Placid. It's rumoured that she is paid in the region of $400,000 to $500,000 per episode for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, making her one of US TV's best-paid stars.
Quote:
On working on Law & Order SVU: "There's the occasional script that just hammers you, that you can't shower off."
Trivia:
She can speak five languages.