Mariska Hargitay’s famous actor parents: Meet Mickey Hargitay & Jayne Mansfield, who died when she was 3

Nevertheless, tragedy struck Jayne Mansfield at the young age of three when her father passed away from a heart attack when the family was traveling. Her mother Vera, a former schoolteacher, was abandoned with her child and had to go back to work to help maintain her family.

“Something went out of my life,” she said. “My earliest memories are the best. I always try to remember the good times when Daddy was alive.”