Mickey Hargitay

The native form of this personal name is Hargitay Miklós. This article uses the Western name order.

Mickey Hargitay
File:Mickey Hargitay 1964.JPG Hargitay in 1964.
Born	Miklós Hargitay (1926-01-06)January 6, 1926 Budapest, Hungary
Died	Los Angeles, California, US
Spouse(s)	Mary Birge (1948–1956) Jayne Mansfield (1958–1964) Ellen Siano (1967–2006) (his death)

Miklós "Mickey" Hargitay (/ˈhɑːrɡᵻteɪ/; Hungarian: Hargitay Miklós [ˈhɒrgitɒi ˈmikloːʃ]; January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006) was a Hungarian-American actor and Mr. Universe 1955. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Hargitay moved to the United States in 1947, where he eventually became a citizen. He was married to Jayne Mansfield, and is 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).

Early life and sports career

File:Mickey hargitay 1955 strength and health cover.jpg

Mickey Hargitay on a magazine cover, 1955.

On January 6, 1926, Hargitay was born in Budapest, one of four children. Raised by a father who was passionate about athletics, he and his brothers were all brought up as athletes. During his youth in Hungary, Hargitay was part of an acrobatic act with his brothers. The act was so popular that they performed throughout all Hungary, including the largest opera house in Budapest. After being introduced to the sport by his brother, Hargitay began competing in speed skating. In 1946, he won the Middle European championship at 500 and 1,500 meters, and placed second in the 5,000 meter race. He was also a proficient soccer player, and was an underground fighter during World War II. In 1947, Hargitay left Hungary to emigrate to the United States. He settled in Cleveland, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Birge, a fellow acrobat. Hargitay had one child with Birge, a daughter named Tina who was born in 1949. He worked as a plumber and carpenter, and also performed in an acrobatic act with his then-wife. He was inspired to begin bodybuilding after seeing a magazine cover of Steve Reeves, famed for playing Hercules. Hargitay became NABBA Mr. Universe in 1955. After winning Mr. Universe and divorcing Birge, Hargitay joined Mae West's muscleman revue at New York's Latin Quarter, where he met Jayne Mansfield, whom he married in 1958. He is the first recipient of the Joe Weider Lifetime Achievement Award.

Acting career

Hargitay's first film role came when Jayne Mansfield demanded he be cast in her movie, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). The two had met the year before at 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." The two fell in love, and were described as inseparable. 20th Century Fox didn't want Hargitay in Rock Hunter, because they disliked Mansfield's view of Hargitay being her "only" lover; Fox preferred their sex symbols to be single.

In 1960, Hargitay and Mansfield played the lead roles in The Loves of Hercules. 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. Over the next four years, Hargitay and Mansfield would appear together in Promises! Promises! (1963) and L'Amore Primitivo (1964). In 1965, Hargitay played the lead role in Bloody Pit of Horror without Mansfield.

Hargitay's acting career wasn't limited to the United States; he also appeared in many Italian productions, and acted in Hungarian director György Szomjas' 1988 film, Mr. Universe.

In 2003, Hargitay made his final acting appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the series in which his daughter Mariska stars. In the episode, titled "Control", Hargitay played a man who witnessed the aftermath of a brutal assault on a subway station escalator. He and his daughter are seen together on screen when Mariska's character, Olivia Benson, is interviewing his character.

Personal life

Hargitay and wife Jayne Mansfield dancing at the Candy Stik Lounge

Hargitay's first marriage was to Mary Birge, with whom he had a daughter, Tina Hargitay (b. 1949). Hargitay and Birge divorced on September 6, 1956.

Hargitay and Jayne Mansfield met in 1956, when he was performing in The Mae West Show at the Latin Quarter. The couple married on January 13, 1958. They had three children: Miklós Jeffrey Palmer Hargitay (b. December 21, 1958), Zoltán Anthony Hargitay (b. August 1, 1960), and Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (b. January 23, 1964). Hargitay remodeled much of his and Mansfield's Beverly Hills mansion, known as "The Pink Palace", building its famous heart-shaped swimming pool. In November 2002, the house was razed by developers who had purchased it from Engelbert Humperdinck.

In May 1963, Hargitay and Mansfield filed for divorce in Juarez, Mexico. The divorce was ruled invalid, and the two reconciled in October 1963. After Mariska's birth, Mansfield sued for the Juarez 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 $5,000 to support the children. In their divorce decree, Mansfield had agreed to pay child support, as well as to give Hargitay approximately $70,000 in cash and property.

Hargitay married again in September 1967 to Ellen Siano. Siano and Hargitay remained married for 39 years, until his death.

Arnold Schwarzenegger played the role of Mickey Hargitay in the 1980 TV-movie The Jayne Mansfield Story.

Death

On September 14, 2006, Hargitay died in Los Angeles, 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."

Filmography

Year	Movie Title	Role	Notes
1957	Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?	Bobo Branigansky	Film Debut; First Film with wife, Jayne Mansfield
1957	Slaughter on Tenth Avenue	Big John
1960	The Loves of Hercules	Hercules	Co-starring Mansfield; Aka: Gli amori di Ercole (Italy; original title)
1963	Promises! Promises!	King Banner	Co-starring Mansfield
1964	L'Amore Primitivo	Hotel Bell Captain	Last film co-starring Mansfield; Aka: Primitive Love (US); not released in the US until 1966
1964	Revenge of The Gladiators	Fabius
1965	Uno straniero a Sacramento	Mike Jordan	Aka: Stranger in Sacramento (US)
1965	Sheriff Won't Shoot	Allan
1965	Bloody Pit of Horror	Travis Anderson	Was to co-star with Mansfield, but the two divorced before filming began
1966	Three bullets for Ringo	Ringo Carson
1966	7 Golden Women Against Two 07	Mark Davis	Aka: Sette donne d'oro contro due 07 (Italy; original title)
1967	Cjamango	Clinton
1970	Ringo, It's Massacre Time	Mike Wood
1971	Lady Frankenstein	Captain Harris
1972	Delirio caldo	Herbert Lyutak
1973	Riti, magie nere e segrete orge nel trecento...	Jack Nelson	Final film appearance
2003	Law and Order: Special Victims Unit	Grandfather	Guest Star; Episode "Control"

External links

• Mickey Hargitay at the Internet Movie Database