American actress, singer, nightclub performer, and Playboy playmate Jayne Mansfield.
In the 1950s, Vera Jayne Palmer, born April 19, 1933, became famous. She starred in multiple successes, including Johnny Promises, and was the most famous sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s. Promises!, The Girl Can’t Help It, The Wayward Bus, Too Hot To Handle, Female Jungle, The Love of Hercules, Kiss Them For Me, and The Jayne Mansfield Story.
Mansfield was called “the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” for her film roles.
She married three times, first with 16-year-old Paul Mansfield in 1950. After marrying, they studied acting at Southern Methodist University.
Mansfield had Jayne Marie a year after her first marriage. She was 17.
“Paul and I had a rough time,” she told May Mann. “He sold magazines and I sold photo albums door-to-door. I often had to bring Jayne Marie to class.”
Jayne left her daughter with her parents to study acting at the University of California when Paul was at summer camp.
I went to three universities and two or three drama schools before going to Hollywood to become an actress. To audition, I performed a Joan of Arc soliloquy for Paramount Studios casting director Milton Lewis. He said I was wasting my “obvious talents.”
“He lightened my hair and tightened my dresses, and this is the result,” she stated in an interview, referring to her Monroe-like appearance.
In 1955, Mansfield divorced Paul because she couldn’t combine her personal and professional life while competing with Marilyn, a big Hollywood star.
Jayne married Mickey Hargitay in 1958 and had three children, including her star child Mariska, Zoltan, and Mickey Jr.
After almost six years, Mickey divorced Jayne in 1964 due to her claimed affair with President John F. Kennedy.
Mansfield married director Matt Cimber for the third and final time. In 1966, they divorced.
June 1967 vehicle accident killed the mother of five.
Mariska Hargitay, her 3-year-old daughter, survived the automobile crash unhurt.
Mickey married actress Ellen Siano after Jayne’s death, helping Mariska and her siblings grieve and financially support the family.
Mariska discovered acting in college. She studied theater at UCLA and got a movie role in 1984.
She Loves My Car was Mariska’s 1984 music video debut.
In 1994, ER made Hargitay famous after several modest roles.
Her filmography includes Ghoulies, Jocks, Lake Placid, The Perfect Weapon, Blind Side, I Am Evidence, Mr. Universe, Plain Truth, Welcome to 18, and Leaving Las Vegas.
She played Olivia on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” in 1999, which made her one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses.
She won Golden Globes and Primetime Emmys for her series performance.
Hargitay told Closer that she despised repeated comparisons to her late mother because she wanted to be appreciated for her job.
“I hated constant references to my mom because I wanted to be known.”
In a 2009 Redbook interview, Mariska revealed Jayne’s death scarred her spirit.
“Losing my mother so young scarred my soul. But it shaped me. I get life. To be here, I had to endure.”