Jayne Mansfield Cuddling 6-Week Old Mariska Hargitay Will Melt Your Heart (PHOTO)
From resurfaced baby photos to a bold new documentary, Mariska Hargitay continues to honor her mother's legacy.
Beloved Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay has always carried the legacy of her famous mother with strength — and a resurfaced photo from her infancy brings that legacy into touching new focus.
The family photo album has been a hot topic amid Hargitay's directorial debut in My Mom Jayne, a documentary about the life and times of her famous mother, the late Hollywood starlet Jayne Mansfield. The black-and-white snapshot shows a baby Hargitay being cradled lovingly in her mother's arms. Mansfield, known for her bombshell beauty and prolific screen career, looks serene in the heartwarming photo.
RELATED: Inside the Incredible Career of Jayne Mansfield, Mariska Hargitay's Mother
For SVU fans, the image offers a peek into the early life of the woman who would later grow up and steal hearts as Olivia Benson. For Hargitay, it's yet another snapshot of her mother's maternal grace.
Jayne Mansfield smiles while holding baby Mariska Hargitay in this 1964 photo
Taken during the early 1960s, the throwback picture captures a quiet, intimate moment between a starlet and her 6-week-old infant daughter just years before tragedy struck when Mansfield died in 1967 in a fatal car accident. The tenderness of the mother-daughter moment frozen in time resonates especially now, as Hargitay opens up in a new and profoundly personal manner about her mother's life behind closed doors.
In her documentary My Mom Jayne, Hargitay explores the inner workings of her mother's family and career, giving viewers an inside scoop into the life of the woman behind the headlines, beyond the blonde bombshell image.
"My mother was this amazing, beautiful, glamorous sex symbol — but people didn't know that she played the violin and had a 160 IQ and had five kids and loved dogs," Hargitay told People in 2018. "She was just so ahead of her time. She was an inspiration, she had this appetite for life, and I think I share that with her."
How Mariska Hargitay continues to honor her mom Jayne Mansfield
Despite losing her mother at such a young age, Hargitay has spent her life honoring Mansfield's memory with grace and unwavering dignity. Beyond elevating her mother's legacy in her documentary, Hargitay has honored her mother at various exciting milestones in her life.
RELATED: How Mariska Hargitay Honored Late Mother Jayne Mansfield at Her Wedding
When Hargitay and her husband Peter Hermann tied the knot in 2004, Hargitay made sure her mother was there for the big day by carrying a locket containing photos of Mansfield and her grandmother while walking down the aisle.
Hargitay has made sure her children know about their larger-than-life grandmother, as well, recently sharing a throwback photo of her then-toddler son August visiting her mother's heart-shaped grave. As chronicled in her documentary, Hargitay and her family even celebrated Mansfield's birthday during the pandemic with a birthday cake and sweet serenade.
