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Mickey Hargitay
Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder (1926–2006) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Miklós Károly "Mickey" Hargitayα (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006) was a Hungarian-American actor and bodybuilder.[1]
Born in Budapest, Hargitay emigrated as a young man of 21 to the United States in 1947. Europe was struggling to recover from World War II. Known as "Mickey", he eventually became a naturalized American citizen.
He became known as a competitive bodybuilder, helping popularize the sport and winning Mr. Universe in 1955. This gave him an entree to acting.[2]
In 1958 Hargitay married actress Jayne Mansfield, who had a daughter by her previous marriage. They had two sons together: Mickey Jr. and Zoltan, but the couple were estranged by the time she gave birth to Mariska Hargitay in 1964. Mariska believed herself to be his daughter before learning at age 25 that her biological father was singer Nelson Sardelli.[3]
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).
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Early life and early career
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Miklós Károly Hargitay was born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary (present-day, Hungary) on January 6, 1926. His parents were Ferenc Hargitay and Mária Hargitay (née Rothsischer).[4] 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 Hungary, including the largest opera house in Budapest.
After being introduced to speed skating by his brother, Hargitay began competing in meets. In 1946, he won the Middle European championship at 500 and 1,500 meters, and placed second in the 5,000 meter race.[2][5] He was also a proficient football player.[1][6] He drew on his athleticism as an underground fighter during World War II.[6][7]
In 1947, aged 21, Hargitay emigrated from Hungary to the United States[4] to avoid being drafted into military service by the Soviet Union.[8] The Hungarian People's Republic was then part of the Eastern Bloc, with close ties to communist Russia.
Hargitay settled in Indianapolis, where he worked as a plumber and carpenter. He also performed in an acrobatic act with his first wife, Mary Birge.[6] He was inspired to begin bodybuilding after seeing a magazine cover featuring Steve Reeves.[9] Hargitay won the National Amateur Body-Builders' Association (NABBA) Mr. Universe award in 1955.[7]
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.[6] After Mae West saw his photo on a magazine cover, she recruited Hargitay for her muscleman revue.[7]
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Acting career
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Hargitay's first film role came when Jayne Mansfield demanded that he be cast in her movie, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957).[10] 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.[citation needed]
In 1960, Hargitay and Mansfield played the lead roles in The Loves of Hercules.[8] 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).[citation needed] 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.[6]
Hargitay's acting career was not limited to the United States; he also appeared in many Italian productions,[7] and acted in Hungarian director György Szomjas' 1988 film, Mr. Universe.[11]
In 2003, Hargitay guest-starred on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He performed as a witness to a violent crime.[8]
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Personal life
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Hargitay with Mansfield in Los Angeles in 1956
Hargitay with Mansfield and children in London in 1959
Hargitay's first wife was fellow acrobat Mary Birge. Hargitay had a daughter, Tina, with Birge in 1949.[12] Hargitay and Birge later divorced.[8]
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."[10] The couple married on January 13, 1958 at the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. They had two sons: Miklós Jr. and Zoltán. Jayne also had a daughter named Mariska Hargitay, who stars on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.[4] Hargitay remodeled much of his and Mansfield's Beverly Hills mansion, known as "The Pink Palace",[13] building its famous heart-shaped swimming pool. In November 2002, the house was razed by developers who had purchased it from Engelbert Humperdinck.[citation needed] 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.[14][15][16] Despite his not being her biological father, Mariska still had loyalty to Mickey and accepted him as her father.[17]
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 ($2.59 million in 2024[18]) to support the children. In their divorce decree, Mansfield had agreed to pay child support, as well as to give Hargitay approximately $70,000 ($710,000 in 2024[18]) in cash and property.[citation needed]
Hargitay married Ellen Siano on April 14, 1968. They remained married until his death.[6][4][8]
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Death
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: "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".[1]
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In popular culture
Hargitay was portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1980 television film The Jayne Mansfield Story.[7]
Filmography
Film
Television
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Notes
- ^α Also anglicised as Hargitai
References and footnotes
External links
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