Beyond acting and being a proud dad, the Law & Order: SVU star’s dad was also a trailblazing bodybuilder.
Before she became Captain Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mariska Hargitay was raised by Hollywood legends. The award-winning actress has recalled how her late father, Mickey Hargitay, in particular, taught her valuable life lessons that have guided her to where she is today.
But who was Mariska Hargitay’s father and what has she shared about their loving relationship? Read on for all the details, including the role he played in his daughter’s wedding more than two decades ago.
Who is Mariska Hargitay’s father?
Mariska’s father Mickey Hargitay was a successful actor and accomplished bodybuilder. He was born in Budapest, Hungary and emigrated to the U.S. in 1947. He passed away at the age of 80 in 2006 following a battle with bone cancer.
Mickey was married to Mariska’s mother, iconic actress and Hollywood starlet Jayne Mansfield, for roughly six years. Together, they welcomed three children: son Miklós “Mickey Jr.” in 1958, son Zoltán in 1960, and daughter Mariska in 1964. Mickey also had a daughter, Tina, born in 1949, with his first wife, Mary Birge.
Mickey later remarried Ellen Siano, who embraced her role as a stepmother to Mariska and her siblings.
Mickey Hargitay won Mr. Universe in 1955
Not long after his move to the U.S. the Hungarian-born bodybuilder won the esteemed championship title of Mr. Universe in 1955. Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the most famous bodybuilders of all time, later portrayed Mickey in the 1980 television movie The Jayne Mansfield Story.
“Walter Winchell once said that what [President] Eisenhower did for golf, Mickey Hargitay did for bodybuilding, because he brought it to the forefront,” bodybuilding historian Gene Mozee told The Los Angeles Times in 2006, who described Mickey’s Mr. Universe title as “an eye-opener” for the world of bodybuilding.
“At that time, athletic coaches discouraged lifting weights, thinking you’d become muscle bound,” Mozee told the newspaper. “And along came Mickey Hargitay, a great all-around athlete.”
Mickey Hargitay was a famous actor who appeared in Law & Order: SVU
In the late 1950s, Mickey landed his first movie role in the rom-com Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
He continued to act throughout the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, including the lead role as himself in the 1988 bodybuilding film, Mr. Universe. In 2003, Mickey shared the screen with his daughter in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
In Season 5, Episode 9 (“Control”), Mickey plays a grandfather in the opening scene who’s interviewed by Benson after witnessing a crime. Mickey’s scene with his daughter on SVU also marked his final acting credit.
Mariska Hargitay reveals her father’s life motto: “We don’t quit”
During a Sunday Sitdown with TODAY’s Willie Geist in January 2025, Mariska opened up about how her father raised her to be determined and never give up. “I was sort of raised with the motto of, ‘We don’t quit in this family,’” she recalled of her dad.
Mariska also shared that her father’s philosophy helped through many pivotal moments in her life, dating back when she was on the high school swim team. “He would say to me, ‘It takes this much more to win in the swim meet,’ which was, you know, super challenging for me,” she told Geist. “High school sports and my father’s training taught me how to get back on the horse and have the stamina to do SVU.”
Mickey Hargitay walked his daughter down the aisle at her wedding
When Mariska married her husband, Peter Hermann, in August 2004, her father walked her down the aisle at the wedding ceremony in Santa Barbara after first arriving in an antique Jaguar, according to a feature in InStyle. During the wedding ceremony in front of 200 guests, Mickey also read a poem by E.E. Cummings. (You can see a photo of them arriving in the vintage luxury car here.)
Through the years, Mickey was present at many of his daughter’s big life moments. At the 2005 Golden Globes, for instance, Mickey looked prouder than ever to be with Mariska when she won the award for Best Actress in a Drama TV Series.
“I’m lucky enough tonight to have my father here with me, and I just want to say that you are my hero. You’ve taught me not only by your word but by example,” the SVU star said as the cameras panned to her father mouthing the words, “I love you, honey.”
Mariska Hargitay remembers her “calm” final moments with her father
More than a decade after her father’s death in 2006, Mariska shared in an interview with People what she remembers from their last moments together.
“It was huge to lose this person who was my everything, my strength, my power, the person who believed in me,” she told the magazine in 2018. “But I got to say goodbye, and I remember it was very calm, and he just looked at me and he said, ‘Mariska … always.’”
“I was the most like him, and the gift that I got, in addition to being able to say goodbye, was knowing that he was in me,” she continued. “I already carried his fire, the lessons that he taught me, his compassion, his love, his kindness. Now I do feel that he’s with me. Even though he’s not here physically, I carry him.”
