In the 1950s, Hollywood saw the rise of Jayne Mansfield, a provocateur of her time. Her three-year-old daughter Mariska Hargitay was also a passenger when her mother was killed in a car crash in 1967.
Mariska was lucky to still be with us. She is a well-known actress in the modern era and bears a striking resemblance to her mother.
For many actors and actresses, it takes years of arduous work to become a Hollywood star. Success necessitates a lot of sacrifice, time, patience, and willpower, but most well-known people would concur that it is worthwhile.
But Jayne Mansfield developed into a household name in less time. She became a well-known sex symbol as a result of her appearances in several big-budget movies in the 1950s and 1960s.
She was occasionally referred to as “the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” because of the roles she was given, but despite the roles, many of which would be classified as “dumb blonde,” she wasn’t at all like that.
The mother of five lost her life in a car accident in 1967. Her offspring, however, are making a lot of effort to continue her legacy.
This is the tale of Mariska Hargitay, who strikingly resembles Jayne Mansfield’s mother.
Jayne Mansfield lived a remarkable yet miserable life.
Vera Jayne Palmer, who was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on April 19, 1933, was raised around a more creative environment. Herbert, her musical father, taught her how to sing and play the violin when she was a young girl.
However, tragedy struck Jayne Mansfield at the age of three when her father passed away suddenly from a heart attack while the family was traveling. After being dumped by her child, her mother Vera, a former teacher, was compelled to go back to work in order to provide for her family.
She explained, “Something left my life. “The earliest memories I have are the clearest. “I make an effort to think back on the enjoyable times when Daddy was alive. “.
The family relocated to Dallas, Texas, when Jayne’s mother remarried in 1939. In addition, Jayne Mansfield wanted to become a famous Hollywood figure. She admired Judy Garland and watched every one of her movies while dressing like her.
When Mansfield first encountered another person, she hadn’t even finished high school. The future icon wed Paul Mansfield, who was 20 at the time, in 1950. Together, they made the trip to Southern Methodist University to pursue acting studies. A year after getting married, Jayne gave birth to her first child, Jayne Marie Mansfield.
After taking a summer course at UCLA in Los Angeles, Mansfield entered the Miss California pageant but later withdrew. Jayne made the decision to enroll at the University of Texas at Austin, where she appeared in several plays.
In 1954, Mansfield’s family moved to Los Angeles. Even though it was a lot of fun in and of itself, Hollywood remained her ultimate goal. The family decided it was the right time because, of course, you had to be in Hollywood to succeed.
Indeed, breaking into the industry is difficult, just like it is for any aspiring actor or actress. When Jayne started her modeling career, her body was all of a sudden a big deal and the center of her life.
She struggled to find employment because casting directors deemed her chubby, alluring shape to be too alluring for a commercial or advertisement. It got to the point where she had to cut out General Electric’s print advertisement from her very first campaign.
Jayne wanted to be on television, and she soon got her big break. She auditioned for the Paramount and Warner Brothers studios, but neither picked her up.
However, casting director Milton Lewis did something that changed Jayne’s perception of herself while she was auditioning at Paramount.
I attended three different universities and two or three acting schools prior to my trip to Hollywood, preparing myself for a potential career as an actor. I gave Milton Lewis, the casting director at Paramount Studios, a monologue I wrote for Joan of Arc as part of my audition. And he gave off the impression that I was wasting my “obvious talents.”. He made my hair lighter and my clothes tighter, and this is the result. “.
Marilyn Monroe was regarded as Hollywood’s most prominent and shining star, and Jayne Mansfield aimed to compete with her. However, her husband Paul had had enough just as her Hollywood career was taking off. The couple divorced in 1955, and their daughter moved to Los Angeles to live with Jayne.
When Jayne was cast in the low-budget film Female Jungle (1955), which gave her a lot of publicity, her career took off. In the same year that she was “Playmate of the Month,” she also made the cover of Playboy Magazine.
She changed her appearance to become the new Marilyn Monroe, and she was a success in that regard. Her new look was that of a pinup, seductive blonde bombshell. Her favorite color was pink, and Jayne even bought a pink Cadillac to drive.
She was quickly signed because the studios wanted to work with her more. Fox promoted her as the “Marilyn Monroe King-Size,” which helped her popularity soar. She was a 1950s sex icon in addition to being an actress back then.
She experienced so many onstage strap and zipper mistakes, according to one journalist, that nudity posed a risk to her career. “.
After appearing in Fox’s 1957 comedy classic Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter, Jayne gained notoriety. That same year, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. She and Kenneth More co-starred in the Western The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw the following year (1958).
The Burglar (1957) and Too Hot to Handle (1958) are just two examples of Jayne’s earlier, riskier roles. (1960). Unfortunately, she earned the moniker “The Poor Man’s Marilyn Monroe.”. “.
Mansfield wed Mickey Hargitay, an actor and bodybuilder, as her second husband at the time. In 1958, they got hitched in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, in front of a lot of media. The family was quickly growing. After the 1959 birth of Mickey Hargitay, she had another two kids. Mariska Magdolna Hargitay was born in 1964, and Zoltan Hargitay was born in 1960.
Immediately following her role in Too Hot to Handle, Jayne got involved in her first legal dispute involving movie censorship. She appeared naked in what at the time was considered a contentious gown, and the movie’s release date was delayed as a result.
A few years later, she engaged in a conflict over the same issue once more. Mansfield made history as the first American Hollywood actress to appear nude on screen in her feature film Promises! Promises! (1963). A lot of censorship and, in some cases, international bans were imposed because the sequence was thought to be excessively explicit.
By this time, Mansfield had established himself as a top Hollywood star, with a reputation that was at the time considered to be “owned by the public.”.
She enjoyed it and thought it was necessary.
In 1960, she stated, “I believe that a star has a responsibility to her public, to invite the public into her life.
“It wouldn’t be fair to the fans, who feel as though they own you, if you kept everything about your personal life a complete secret. But I do mean my personal and private lives. “.
As quickly as she gained fame, Jayne’s career started to fall apart. After being fired by 20th Century Fox in 1962, she continued to make appearances on a number of TV programs and game shows. In the 1960s, Mansfield decided to act in movies outside of Hollywood, appearing in productions in Germany, Italy, and the UK. She started touring the United States and the United Kingdom while giving stage performances in nightclubs.
A tour was planned in 1967 by Don Arden, a well-known music promoter and Sharon Osbourne’s father. For one week, she presented her work in Batley.
People in the room were affected by her Hollywood sheen.
Neil Sean, an entertainment reporter for NBC News, stated that “my father said all these harridans would show up at Batley wearing rollers and headscarves.”.
They arrived with their hair done and lipstick on, but as the week went on, they got more and more beautiful. “.
By this time, Hargitay had wed filmmaker Matt Cimber after splitting from Mansfield. After she gave birth to Anthony Cimber, her fifth child, they got divorced the following year.
The final tour of Jayne Mansfield took place in the UK. After performing at a nightclub in Mississippi, she was on her way to New Orleans when she was killed in a car accident. A tractor-trailer was struck by her vehicle. Younger than 34, Jayne was.
Mansfield, her ex-boyfriend Sam Brody, and their driver perished in the collision. In the Fairview Cemetery in Pennsylvania, she was interred alongside her father.
Even though three of her kids were sleeping in the backseat of the car, they were unharmed and managed to escape. To be with her father, Mickey Hargitay, three-year-old Mariska Hargitay moved.
Mariska, on the other hand, followed her mother into the entertainment industry. What happened to her since she looks just like her mother?
She stated to Redbook in 2009, “Losing my mum at such a young age is a spiritual scar.”.
“However, I think it ultimately helped to shape who I am today. I am aware of life’s course. I had to experience what I did to get here. “.
Mariska decided to pursue a drama degree at UCLA in Los Angeles. In 1984’s Ghoulies, she made her film debut. In order to pursue a career on a bigger stage, she spent the 1980s acting in various TV shows. She did not, however, alter her name or hair color like her mother did. Many people suggested that she change her name, appearance, and even sound like her mother. At one point in the 1986 movie Jocks, she rejected a naked scene.
Being the daughter of a famous Hollywood figure is difficult. It has occasionally even been difficult for Mariska.
Because she was her mother, she used to hate being compared to her, she admitted to Closer. “My spirit is bruised by the trauma of losing my mother at such a young age. “.
Prior to landing her significant breakthrough role, Mariska had been acting for 15 years. She played Olivia Benson in the 1999 season of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC. The current season of the show has 481 episodes, and Mariska has appeared in 481 of them.
Mariska has had a fruitful career as a result of her work on the well-liked primetime series, for which she received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama.
In addition, eight other awards have nominated her.
The entertainment industry is now dominated by Mariska Hargitay, who is a well-known actress like her mother. She also has a beautiful smile, just like her mother!
In 2004, Mariska wed the actor and producer Peter Hermann; together, they have three kids.
Marika was a young child when her mother perished in a terrible car accident, but becoming a mother has allowed her to feel a stronger connection to the parent she lost so soon.
I get the most joy from being a wife and mother, she said, adding that it is my life. She and I are now closer because I can see the love she once had for herself. “I now have a comforting understanding of [my mother]. “.
When their stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame were positioned next to one another in 2013, Mariska Hargitay and her mother, Jayne Mansfield, were somewhat reunited.
Indelible performances by Jayne Mansfield will always have a special place in our hearts.
Even though she is no longer with us, she will be remembered, and Mariska, her daughter, is a fantastic actor. Are they not similar to one another?