Jayne Mansfield would have been 90! Daughter Mariska Hargitay pens tribute

Hollywood blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield who partied with Sophia Loren and competed with Marilyn Monroe would have turned 90 on Wednesday.

The pin-up, who starred in the hit movies The Girl Can’t Help It and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, died at the age of 34 after a car accident on June 29, 1967.

Her daughter Mariska Hargitay, who is best known for starring in Law & Order: SVU, wrote an emotional tribute on her Instagram page.

‘Happy Birthday Mama. We live to love you more every day,” the acclaimed star wrote in her caption as her boyfriend Hilary Swank shared a red heart.

Mariska uploaded a beautiful black and white photo of her mother in a silky evening dress.

The actress was only three years old when her mother was killed.

Fans were quick to share messages of support, as one noted, “She lives on through you.” She would be so proud of you.’

Another wrote, “Happy Birthday Jayne, you have put on our planet an amazing person who has blessed us with her amazing talents and her joyful soul..’

Mansfield’s life was suddenly cut short when she was in a Buick car traveling from Biloxi, Mississippi to New Orleans, along with her lawyer and then-boyfriend Samuel S. Brody, driver Ronnie Harrison, and three of her children.

Harrison crashed into the back of a tractor trailer that was obscured by a cloud of insecticide dust from the truck carrying him.

Mariska, who was fast asleep in the backseat, survived. Her brothers, eight-year-old Mickey Jr. and six-year-old Zoltan, also survived.

Jayne Mansfield was born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

She studied acting in college and won a series of quirky beauty pageants, including Gas Station Queen, Miss Lobster, and Miss Fire Prevention Week.

Her iconic hourglass figure cost her roles in Hollywood’s conservative climate in the 1950s, but she won a famous nude shoot with Playboy in 1955.

The following year, Mansfield signed with Twentieth Century Fox, whose executives hoped she could become the next Marilyn Monroe.

Despite her cultivated image as the stereotypical dumb blonde, Mansfield was an intelligent woman who spoke five languages ​​and reportedly had a thirst for knowledge.

She was named one of the most promising newcomers at the 1957 Golden Globe Awards for her performances in such films as The Girl Can’t Help It.

But by the early 1960s, her career had begun to fizzle out.

After making waves as one of the first major Hollywood actresses to appear nude in a movie – Promises! Promises! in 1963 – Mansfield’s career continued to struggle.

Mansfield’s rather rocky private life — three marriages that all ended in divorce, along with allegations of numerous affairs — was also a major talking point during her time in the public eye.

In 1966 she also began a friendship with Anton LaVey, a Satanist who was trying to attract new members to his Church of Satan.

A popular legend, possibly spread by LaVey himself, claimed that he portrayed the devil who raped Mia Farrow’s character in the 1968 film Rosemary’s Baby.

After hooking up in San Francisco, the pair developed a friendship – which some claim was sexual in nature – and continued to meet regularly to perform rituals until Mansfield’s death.

During their intense correspondence over the next year, it is alleged that Mansfield asked LaVey to send her an incubus – a male demon that visits women in their sleep.

The couple also likes to dine in public around Beverly Hills, with LaVey in his dazzling cape. Fortunately, paparazzi were always on hand to document them as they held court.

After Mansfield died, LaVey held a satanic memorial service for her at his Black House in San Francisco.

Mansfield was survived by her five children: Jayne (born 1950), Mickey (born 1958), Zoltan (born 1960), Mariska (born 1964), and Tony (born 1965).

By the time of her fateful death, Mansfield had survived no less than six car accidents.

Hargitay is married to Peter Hermann, an actor she met on the set of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

The couple have three children together; biological son August, 17, adopted daughter Amaya, 12, and their adopted Andrew, 11.

Reflective about the hard lessons she had to learn as a young girl after the loss, Harigtay told Glamor in 2021: “I think I learned about crisis very young, and I learned very young that shit happens and there are no guarantees, and we keep going. And then we transform it.’

The Can’t Hurry Love star continued, “That’s been kind of my superpower, and the gift of being traumatized early in life. I have the past 50 – how old am I? – 57, so 54 years spent trying to figure out what happened and why, and what should I do with it?’

In a previous interview with People, Hargitay revealed that she had developed “catastrophic thinking” while dealing with her mother’s death.

She told the weekly that losing her mother at a young age had mentally prepared her that the worst could always happen, as she explained, “The way I’ve lived with loss is to lean into it. As the saying goes, the only way out is through.

“In my life I have certainly tried to avoid pain, loss, feeling things. But instead I’ve learned to really lean into it, because sooner or later you have to pay the piper.”

The Downtown star did admit that her mentality doesn’t make the loss any easier, but can help her put things into perspective.

“I’m not saying it’s easy, and it certainly hasn’t been for me,” she explained. “There has been a lot of darkness. But on the other hand, it can be so bright.’

In 2013, Hargitay and her mother were united on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame when their stars were placed side by side.