Mickey Hargitay

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Mickey Hargitay

Mickey Hargitay with Jayne Mansfield
Birth name Miklós Hargitay
Born January 6, 1926
Flag of Hungary Budapest, Hungary
Died September 14, 2006
Flag of United States Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse(s) Mary Birge, Jayne Mansfield, Ellen Hargitay

Mickey Hargitay (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006) was an actor and Mr. Universe 1955. He was born Miklós Hargitay in Budapest, Hungary. He also is noted for his marriage to Jayne Mansfield.

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[edit] Early life and sports career

Growing up in Hungary, he performed in an acrobatic act with his brothers. He also played soccer and became a champion speed skater.[1]An underground fighter during World War II, Hargitay fled Hungary after the war and moved to the United States. He settled in Cleveland, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Birge (with whom he also had an acrobatic act and one child, Tina, who was born in 1949), and worked as a plumber and carpenter. He was inspired to begin bodybuilding after seeing a magazine cover of Steve Reeves, famed for playing Hercules. He became NABBA Mr. Universe in 1955. After winning Mr. Universe, he joined Mae West's muscleman revue at New York's The Latin Quarter, where he met Jayne Mansfield.

[edit] Personal life

His first marriage was to Mary Birge. Together they had a daughter:

Tina Hargitay (1949—).

Hargitay and Mansfield married on January 13, 1958. In May 1963 in Juarez, Mexico they divorced. The divorce was ruled invalid, and the two reconciled in October 1963. After Mariska's birth, Jayne sued for the Juarez divorce to be declared legal and won: the divorce was recognised in the United States on August 26, 1964. They had three children:

Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (21 December 1958—)
Zoltan Anthony Hargitay (1 August 1960—)
Mariska Magdolina Hargitay (called Maria, 24 January 1964—), who was born after Mansfield divorced Hargitay in May 1963. She is a 2005 Best Drama Actress Golden Globe award winner and a 2006 Outstanding Lead Drama Actress Emmy Award-winner for portraying Olivia Benson on the television show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Mickey Hargitay remodeled much of his and Mansfield's Beverly Hills mansion, "The Pink Palace", building its famous heart-shaped swimming pool. In November 2002, the house was razed by developers. Its previous owner had been Engelbert Humperdinck.

After Mansfield's death in a car crash on June 29, 1967, Hargitay sued her estate for over $275,000 to support the children; in their divorce decree, she had agreed to pay child support and to give him approximately $70,000 in cash and property. Hargitay married again in September 1967 to Ellen Siano, his wife until his death, who helped raise Miklós Jr., Zoltan, and Mariska.

Mickey Hargitay had a brother, Ede (the grandfather of actor Eddie Hargitay) and Mickey was Eddie Hargitay's godfather.

[edit] Show biz career

He acted in two of Mansfield's most notable films with her - The Loves of Hercules (1960) and Promises! Promises! (1963). From 1959 to 1961, Hargitay hosted a television exercise show. Hargitay appeared in an episode of his daughter Mariska's series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the episode "Control", Hargitay played a man on a subway station escalator who witnesses the aftermath of a brutal assault Mariska's character, Olivia Benson, is later seen interviewing him. He also starred as Travis Anderson in the Italian horror film Bloody Pit of Horror.

[edit] Recognition

  • He is the first recipient of the Joe Weider Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • In May 2006, he received the Muscle Beach Hall of Fame Award from the Muscle Beach Historical Committee.
  • He was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1982 TV-movie The Jayne Mansfield Story.

[edit] Death

He died in Los Angeles on September 14, 2006, aged 80, from multiple myeloma. The Los Angeles Times noted in Hargitay's obituary:

“ "Walter Winchell once said that what [President] Eisenhower did for golf, Mickey Hargitay did for bodybuilding, because he brought it to the forefront," Gene Mozee, a bodybuilding historian and writer for Iron Man magazine, told The Times on Monday. "Back in those days, bodybuilding was thought of as a freakish, unusual activity that wasn't popular with the general public," Mozee said. "At that time, athletic coaches discouraged lifting weights, thinking you'd become muscle bound. And along came Mickey Hargitay, a great all-around athlete." ”

[edit] External links

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