About Mickey Hargitay : Miklos “Mickey” Hargitay (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006) was an actor and Mr. Universe 1955. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he was married to Jayne Mansfield, and the father of actress Mariska Hargitay. 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 L’Amore Primitivo (1964). Growing up in Hungary, he performed in an acrobatic act with his brothers. He also played soccer and became a champion speed skater. 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, his wife from 1958 to 1964. 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. His first marriage was to Mary Birge. Together they had a daughter Tina Hargitay (b. 1949). They divorced on September 6, 1956.
Hargitay and Mansfield married on January 13, 1958. They had three children: Miklos Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (b. December, 21 1958), Zoltan Anthony Hargitay (b. August 1, 1960), Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (called Maria, b. January 23, 1964). 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. In May 1963, they divorced in Juarez, Mexico. The divorce was ruled invalid, and the two reconciled in October 1963. After the birth of Mariska, Mansfield sued for the Juarez divorce to be declared legal and 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 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. Arnold Schwarzenegger played the role of Mickey Hargitay in the 1980 TV-movie The Jayne Mansfield Story. Hargitay’s nephew and godson Eddie Hargitay is also an actor.
