Latest news with #ZoltanHargitay
Daily Mail
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Mariska Hargitay drops shock bombshell about car crash that killed her mother Jayne Mansfield
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay has revealed a hair-raising new detail about the tragedy that blew her life apart when she was a child. Her mother Jayne Mansfield was one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1950s, a screen siren and Playboy Playmate who with Promises! Promises! became the first star actress to feature naked in an American movie since the advent of talkies. Jayne's saucy career ran alongside a tempestuous personal life that included a roaring drinking problem and affairs with men as prominent as John F. Kennedy. She was tragically killed at the age of 34 in a grisly car accident - with three of her children, including three-year-old Mariska, in the backseat. Now Mariska, 61, has made a documentary called My Mom Jayne, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival last week and contains a shock bombshell about the crash. In the movie, Mariska's siblings remember that they were pulled out of the wreck and taken to safety, only to realize later that Mariska had been left behind, via People. Mariska's brother Zoltan tells her that Jayne had initially been in the backseat of the car but moved up front with her boyfriend Sam Brody while they were arguing. The children remained asleep in the back of the Buick Electra, where they survived the crash that killed Jayne, Sam and the driver Ronald Harrison. 'I often think about why she didn't just stay in the backseat with us?' said Zoltan. 'But I remember her comforting me, telling me I was going to be fine. Twenty minutes later, half an hour, I heard her scream so loud, and that was it.' Zoltan, who was just shy of his seventh birthday at the time of the crash, chillingly remembered: 'It felt like my skin didn't move, because it was bloody all over.' Some adults rescued Zoltan and his then eight-year-old brother Mickey Jr., but after the boys were retrieved from the scene, Zoltan realized Mariska was not with them. Their stepmother Ellen Hargitay revealed that when Mariska was eventually found in the car, she had injured her head and was wedged under a passenger seat. Jayne gave birth to Mariska while married to her second husband Mickey Hargitay, who raised the little girl after her mother was killed. However, in the documentary, Mariska announces that her biological father was in fact one Nelson Sardelli, who is still alive in his 90s. In spite of her stardom, Jayne's movie roles were eclipsed by a whirlwind love life that included three failed marriages, the second of which was to the Hungarian heartthrob Mickey Hargitay, who earned the bodybuilding title Mr. Universe in 1955. One year later, Jayne saw Mickey performing backup in Mae West's nightclub act and told the waiter: 'I'll have a steak and the man on the left.' They married in 1958, with Jayne in a pink sequin bridal gown, and he promptly began appearing in her movies like Primitive Love and The Loves Of Hercules. Offscreen their marriage was infamously turbulent, rocked by Jayne's affair with Italian producer Enrico Bomba, which unfolded in the headlines. By the time Jayne discovered she was pregnant with Mariska, she and Mickey had already procured a quickie divorce in Juarez, Mexico. In order to avoid the opprobrium of having a baby out of wedlock, Jayne and Mickey briefly kept up the appearance of being married stateside, but once Mariska was born, Mickey had the Mexican divorce officially recognized by a California court. As the years went by, Jayne's career deteriorated and her personal life was scarred by a third divorce and a spiraling descent into alcoholism. Reduced to playing the nightclub circuit, the woman once touted as 'the working man's Marilyn Monroe' found herself staging 'wardrobe malfunctions' for publicity and throwing herself into drunken brawls. After Jayne's tragic death, Mariska moved in with Mickey, who was able to provide her with a stable upbringing until she ventured into acting herself, most famously with her popular role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. 'I think I learned about crisis very young,' she told Glamour while reflecting on her mother's death: 'and I learned very young that s*** happens and there's no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it.' She added: 'That's been kind of my superpower, and the gift of having trauma early in life. I've spent the last 50 - how old am I? - 57, so 54 years sort of trying to figure out what happened and why, and what am I supposed to do with it?' Mariska recalled: 'I clearly was in that frozen place for a lot of my childhood—of trying to survive, actually trying to survive. My life has been a process of unpeeling the layers and trust and trusting again.'
Fox News
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Law & Order: SVU' star Mariska Hargitay discovers she was left behind at scene of mother's tragic accident
"Law & Order: SVU" star Mariska Hargitay uncovered a shocking detail about the car crash that killed her mother, Jayne Mansfield. During the filming of the 61-year-old actress's new documentary "My Mom Jayne," Hargitay had a conversation with her brother Zoltan Hargitay in which she learned that she had been accidentally left behind at the scene of the 1967 accident that claimed the life of her mother as well Mansfield's boyfriend Sam Brody and driver Ronald B. Harrison. At the time of the crash, Mansfield, Brody and Harrison were in the front seat of the vehicle while Harigitay, Zoltan and their older brother Mickey Hargitay Jr. were asleep in the backseat. In the film, Zoltan recalled how Mansfield had moved up to the front seat during an argument with Brody, according to People magazine. "I often think about why she didn't just stay in the backseat with us?" Zoltan said in the documentary. "But I remember her comforting me, telling me I was going to be fine. 20 minutes later, half an hour, I heard her scream so loud, and that was it," he continued as he became emotional. Ahead of the accident, the group was driving from Biloxi, Mississippi to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Mansfield was set to make a television appearance. While on the highway, their car slammed into the back of an 18-wheeler that had slowed down barely south of the Mississippi border, according to the New York Times. The vehicle was shrouded in a dense fog from a nearby anti-mosquito spray truck. All of the adults in the front seat were killed instantly, but the children in the backseat survived with injuries. Mickey, who was eight at the time, recalled waking up in the back seat of a car following the crash and thinking that he saw Mansfield sitting in the front seat. "It felt like my skin didn't move, because it was bloody all over," he remembered in the film, via People. However, after the woman in the front seat turned around, Mickey realized that she was not Mansfield, and he was "in a car with a blonde-haired woman who had helped rescue the children." When Zoltan, then 6-years-old, woke up in the car, he noticed that Hargitay, who was 3-years-old at the time, was not with them. He asked the adults where his little sister was, leading them to realize that a third child had been in the car at the time of the crash. The adults then circled back to the scene of the accident, where Hargitay had been pulled to safety. In the film, the children's stepmother Ellen Hargitay explained that the adults initially missed Hargitay because she had been lodged under the passenger seat with a head injury. "Thank God Zolie woke up," Ellen said. "My Mom Jayne" premiered during the Tribeca Festival on June 13 at New York City's Carnegie Hall. The film first debuted on May 17 at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. During a May interview with Vanity Fair, Hargitay explained that the documentary, which marks the actress's directorial debut, helped her address the loss of her mother. "I don't remember the accident," she told the outlet. "I don't even remember being told that my mom had died. I looked at photos, and I don't really remember anything until I was 5." While speaking with Vanity Fair, Hargitay revealed that her biological father is former Las Vegas entertainer Nelson Sardelli. She and her brothers were raised by late actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. In 1963, Mansfield filed for divorce from Mickey, who died in 2006 at age 80. She then embarked on a high-profile romance with Sardelli. The actress went on to reconcile with Mickey several months before Hargitay's birth in 1964. Hargitay told the outlet that she had long suspected that Mickey, whom she idolized, was not her biological father. While Hargitay was in her 20s, her suspicions were confirmed when she saw a photo of Sardelli. At age 30, Hargitay first met her biological father when she went to see Sardelli perform in Atlantic City. Hargitay eventually forged a bond with Sardelli, 90, and his daughters, Giovanna and Pietra Sardelli. According to People magazine, Sardelli, Giovanna, Pietra and Jayne Marie attended the New York City premiere of "My Mom Jayne" alongside Hargitay. Mansfield, born Vera Jayne Palmer, was an aspiring actress who spoke several languages and played violin and piano. A casting director suggested she bleach her hair, wear tighter dresses and adopt a Marilyn Monroe-inspired voice. The "dumb blonde" persona stuck, and Mansfield skyrocketed to fame in Hollywood. But like Monroe, Mansfield struggled to be taken seriously as an actress. "When I would hear that fake voice, it used to just flip me out," Hargitay recalled to Vanity Fair. "'Why is she talking like that? That's not real.' [But] my dad would always say, 'She wasn't like that at all. She was like you. She was funny and irreverent and fearless and real.'" "My Mom Jayne" will premiere June 27 on HBO and HBO Max.
