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Mariska Hargitay Biography

Mariska Hargitay is an American actress. She is best known for her role as New York Police Department Lieutenant Olivia Benson on the NBC drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.  Mariska due to  her role on the show,she has received multiple awards and nominations, including a Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe.

Mariska made her film debut in the 1985 horror comedy film Ghoulies and her major television debut in the 1986 adventure drama series Downtown. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s she appeared in numerous roles in film and television shows before being cast as Olivia Benson, a role that led to her founding the Joyful Heart Foundation, which provides support to women and men who have been sexually abused.

Mariska Hargitay Age | How Old Is Mariska Hargitay

Mariska was born on January 23, 1964 at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California. She is 55 years old as of 2019.

Mariska Hargitay Height | How Tall Is Mariska Hargitay | Mariska Hargitay Measurements | Mariska Hargitay Weight

Mariska stands at a height of 1.72 m, body Measurements of 37-28-36 and body weight of 67 kg.

Mariska Hargitay Family | Mariska Hargitay Parents | Mariska Hargitay Siblings

Mariska was born at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California.  She is the daughter of actress and 1950s-era sex symbol Jayne Mansfield. Her father was the Hungarian-born former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay.  Her first and middle names are Hungarian and refer to Mary Magdalene (Mariska is a diminutive of Mary). Mariska was raised Roman Catholic.  She has two older brothers, Miklós and Zoltán, and three half-siblings, Jayne Marie Mansfield and Antonio “Tony” Cimber (from her mother’s first and third marriages, respectively) and Tina Hargitay (from her father’s first marriage).

Mariska Hargitay Mother | Mariska Hargitay Father | Jayne Mansfield Mariska Hargitay

Mariska’s parents divorced in May 1963, however, a judge later found their Mexican divorce invalid. The two reconciled a few months before Mariska’s birth in January 1964, but soon separated again.  Her mother successfully petitioned the court to rule the Mexican divorce legal in August 1964 . A few weeks later, Mansfield married the director Matt Cimber, who had directed her in a 1964 production of the William Inge play Bus Stop.  On June 29, 1967, Mariska’s mother was killed in an automobile accident on a stretch of U.S. Route 90 between New Orleans and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Her boyfriend, Sam Brody, and the driver were also killed. Asleep in the back of the vehicle, Mariska who was 3 years and a half years old, was left with a zigzag scar on one side of her head. Mariska’s  brothers Miklós and Zoltán were also in the car, but escaped with minor injuries.

After the death of their mother, Mariska and her siblings were raised by their father and his third wife, Ellen Siano.  She  dislikes comparisons with her famous mother and at age 18 said, “My dad was Mr. Universe, so it would be fun for me to be Miss Universe.”

On August 27, 2006, upon winning her Emmy  Mariska thanked her father. Soon after, on September 14, 2006, her father died from multiple myeloma in Los Angeles, California, at age 80

Mariska Hargitay Young |Mariska Hargitay Miss Beverly Hills

When Mariska was a student at Catholic secondary school, Marymount High School, she was active in cheerleading, student government, athletics, and the theater program.  Mariska enjoyed acting and enrolled at UCLA after graduation from high school in 1982. That same year, Mariska was crowned Miss Beverly Hills USA. Mariska had an agent and several small roles to her credit by the time she was a freshman in college. She joined UCLA School of Theater Film and Television where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma. Mariska left before completing her degree when she began her acting career.

Mariska attended Groundlings Theatre and School in Los Angeles.

Mariska Hargitay Kids | Mariska Hargitay Peter Hermann | Is Mariska Hargitay Married | Mariska Hargitay Husband | Mariska Hargitay Adoption | Mariska Hargitay Son

In Santa Barbara on August 28, 2004, California, Mariska married Peter Hermann, an actor whom she met on the set of Law & Order: SVU, on which he plays the recurring role of Defense Attorney Trevor Langan. They have three children. Mariska gave birth to their son, August Miklos Friedrich Hermann, by an emergency caesarean section. They adopted Amaya Josephine in April 2011 and attended her birth.  They also adopted a baby boy, Andrew Nicolas Hargitay Hermann, who had been born in mid-2011.

Mariska Hargitay Tv Shows

Mariska Hargitay Movies

Mariska Hargitay Baywatch

Mariska also apppeared on Baywatch  action drama series about the Los Angeles County lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, starring David Hasselhoff. Later the show was cancelled after its first season on NBC, but survived through syndication and it became one of the most-watched television shows in the world. It rans in its original title and format from 1989 to 1999. With a setting change and large cast overhaul from 1999 to 2001, it was known as Baywatch: Hawaii.

Mariska Hargitay Net Worth |Mariska Hargitay Salary

Mariska is an actress who has an estimated net worth of $50 million and salary of $450,000 per episode.

Mariska Hargitay Law And Order | Mariska Hargitay Leaving Svu | Actress Mariska Hargitay

Casting for the lead characters of NBC police procedural television drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit occurred in the spring of 1999. Dick Wolf, along with officials from NBC and Studios USA, were at the final auditions for the two leads at Rockefeller Center. The last round had been narrowed down to six finalists. For the female lead – Detective Olivia Benson – Samantha Mathis, Reiko Aylesworth, and Hargitay were being considered.

For the male role were Detective Elliot Stabler  and  the finalists were Tim Matheson, John Slattery, and Christopher Meloni. Meloni and Mariska had auditioned in the final round together and after the actors left, there was a moment of dead silence, after which Wolf blurted out, “Oh well. There’s no doubt who we should choose – Hargitay and Meloni.” The duo, who Wolf believed had the perfect chemistry from the first time he saw them together, were his first choice. Garth Ancier, then head of NBC Entertainment, agreed, and the rest of the panel assembled voiced their assent. Mariska trained as a rape crisis advocate to prepare for the role of Benson.

During the last months of her pregnancy in 2006, she took maternity leave from SVU, and was temporarily replaced by Connie Nielsen, who portrayed Stabler’s temporary partner Dani Beck.

After the show’s tenth season in May 2009, Mariska and Meloni’s contracts expired when they were reportedly making $375,000 –$385,000 per episode. In negotiations in April for a new contract, the two attempted to receive a percentage of the show’s profits as other high-profile Law and Order actors had done in the past. It was rumored that NBC threatened to replace Mariska and Meloni if they persisted in their demands.

However, two months later it was officially reported that their contracts had been renewed for two more years. When the thirteenth season was about to air, initial reports indicated that Hargitay would appear in only the first 13 episodes. However, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt later clarified that she would be in every episode of the season.

Mariska as of August 2012 was earning approximately $400,000 –$500,000 per episode.

Mariska Hargitay House | Mariska Hargitay Home | Where Does Mariska Hargitay Live

Mariska listed the stunning Upper West Side townhome she shares with her husband, actor Peter Hermann, for $10.75 million. The colorful, six-floor property, located at 45 West 84th Street, has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and three powder rooms. At approximately 7,000 square feet, the space is complete with an elevator, a finished basement, and a rooftop den. Plus, air-conditioning and home security systems, a vented laundry room, and heated bathroom flooring are just a few renovations the lucky buyer of this property will enjoy. Scroll down for a look inside the home.

Christopher Meloni And Mariska Hargitay

Melon and Mariska both starred on the perennially popular Law And Order: SVU for 11 seasons together. Mariska, and Christopher Meloni, have reunited in real life after a vacation get-together in 2019.

The two have gotten together multiple times in recent years, though it’s been seven years since Christopher was a regular castmember of the show.

Mariska Hargitay Falcon Crest

Mariska had a recurring role as Carly Fixx in the soap opera Falcon Crest in 1988. Falcon Crest is  prime time television soap opera that aired for nine seasons on CBS from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. The series was based on the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. It was starred by Jane Wyman as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, opposite Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela’s nephew who returns after the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley (modeled after the Napa Valley) northeast of San Francisco.

Mariska Hargitay Quotes

1. Just smiling at someone walking down the street can make the person’s day. It’s all about paying it forward.
2. Chocolate is the first luxury. It has so many things wrapped up in it: deliciousness in the moment, childhood memories, and that grin-inducing feeling of getting a reward for being good.
3. Every day is deeper and richer and more soulful.
   Golf made me feel like a loser. So I dismissed it.
4. You make sacrifices to become a mother, but you really find yourself and your soul.
5. I definitely have my days where I look like I got dressed in the dark.
6. If you stop for one second and do something, everyone is happy. You pay it forward and it comes back to you twelve-fold.
   Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/mariska_hargitay

Mariska Hargitay Charity

Mariska is founder and president of the Joyful Heart Foundation.  It is an organization which was established in 2004 to provide support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse. According to Mariska, she was inspired by an encounter with a school of dolphins that surrounded her while she was swimming off the coast of Hawaii at the age of 15.

This encounter had ignited profound spiritual feelings within her, was one that Mariska hoped to share with others.  The Joyful Heart Foundation as of November 2010, has sent over 5,000 women and children on therapeutic programs in New York, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, which combine yoga, meditation, massage, journaling, and swimming with dolphins.

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