Mariska Hargitay Remembers Her 'Mama' Jayne Mansfield, on What Would Have Been Her 93rd Birthday
Mariska Hargitay Remembers Her 'Mama' Jayne Mansfield, on What Would Have Been Her 93rd Birthday
Clare FisherMon, April 20, 2026 at 9:26 AM UTC
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Jayne Mansfield; Mariska HargitayCredit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty; Jamie McCarthy/Getty -
Mariska Hargitay honored her late mother, Jayne Mansfield, on what would have been her 93rd birthday on Sunday, April 19
Mansfield was a 1950s and ’60s Hollywood icon who shared three children with actor Mickey Hargitay
Mariska’s documentary My Mom Jayne explores her mother’s life and premiered on Max in June 2025
Mariska Hargitay is remembering her late mom, Jayne Mansfield, on her posthumous 93rd birthday.
On Sunday, April 19, Hargitay, 62, shared a black-and-white image of her mother being held aloft on what appears to be a film set on Instagram.
“Happy Heavenly Birthday mama Jayne✨💕💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗,” the actress, who has played Olivia Benson on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for 27 seasons, captioned the throwback shot.
Jayne Mansfield (1933 - 1967), circa 1955Credit: Silver Screen Collection/Getty
Hollywood icon Mansfield died in 1967 at age 34 in a car accident. She shared three children — Mariska, Miklós and Zoltan — with bodybuilder-turned-actor Mickey Hargitay.
Mansfield was a Hollywood bombshell in the 1950s and ‘60s. She met Hungarian-born Mr. Universe winner Mickey Hargitay at the height of her career, and they married in 1958. Mickey then became a star in his own right, appearing in movies alongside Jayne, including Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and The Loves of Hercules.
Mariska has often said that her mother’s death at such a young age shaped her deeply. “The way I’ve lived with loss is to lean into it. As the saying goes, the only way out is through,” she told PEOPLE in 2018. “I’m not saying it’s easy, and it certainly hasn’t been for me. There’s been a lot of darkness. But on the other side things can be so bright.”
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Mariska Hargitay, September 11, 2025Credit: Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images
She has also touched on the fact that she sees a lot of her mother in herself. “Someone once said about [remembering] my mother: ‘All you have to do is look in the mirror,’ ” she added.
In April 2025, Mariska announced a new documentary about her mother's life, My Mom Jayne, which premiered on Max last June.
"This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth," the actress said of the documentary in a press release. "I’ve always believed there is strength in vulnerability, and the process of making this film has confirmed that belief like never before.”
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Mickey, meanwhile, died in 2006 after a long illness, and Mariska has credited him with teaching her perseverance, particularly with regard to her career.
“I could have quit a million times, but my dad drilled into me that our family doesn’t quit,” Mariska told Parade in 2019 of her career before landing her breakout role on Law & Order: SVU. “So if you don’t get it, it means you’re not ready and you have to get up and try again.”
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
