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‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Drops Classic Pic of Her Hollywood Icon Mom

While Mariska Hargitay may have made a name for herself through “Law & Order: SVU,” she was always destined to be in the spotlight. It kind of comes with the territory when your mother is a Hollywood icon and star actress.

That’s right, the “Law & Order” star’s mom is none other than Jayne Mansfield, Hollywood darling of the 1950s and 1960s. She starred in films like “The Girl Can’t Help It,” “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” and “The Loves of Hercules.”

Tragically, Jayne Mansfield died in a car accident in 1967, when Hargitay was only three years old. Hargitay was actually in the car when it crashed into the back of a semi-truck, according to Country Living. While the three adults in the car were killed, Hargitay and her two older brothers emerged with minimal injuries.

To this day, the “Law & Order” actress continues to honor her late mother’s memory. Mansfield was only 34 when she died, but she has a plethora of pictures from her time as Hollywood’s blonde bombshell. Earlier today, Hargitay posted one of those throwback black-and-white photos of Mansfield.

In the pic, Mansfield stretches one arm straight up while the other is bent behind her head in a classic morning stretch pose. Her mouth is open in a yawn even as she looks straight at the camera.

“Morning,” Hargitay captioned it.

Fellow actress and “Law & Order” alum Ali Wentworth responded to the post with a cheeky comment. “Oh I love you blonde!” she wrote. The joke hits because Hargitay and her late mother look startlingly alike.

‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Talks Growing Up Without Hollywood Mom

In a 2018 interview with “People” magazine, the “Law & Order” star talked about what it was like to lose her mother so young and grow up under her legacy.

“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, certainly, I’ve tried to avoid pain, loss, feeling things. But I’ve learned instead to real­ly lean into it because sooner or later you have to pay the piper,” Hargitay said. “I’m not saying it’s easy, and it certainly hasn’t been for me. There’s been a lot of darkness. But on the other side things can be so bright.”

She wishes people remembered her mother as something other than “the dumb blonde” on tons of Hollywood flicks. Hargitay told “People” how much more her mother had to offer the world.

“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 said. “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.”

That’s not the only thing the two share. The eerie similarity between their looks means Hargitay doesn’t have to go too far to see her mother’s face.

“Someone once said about [remembering] my mother: ‘All you have to do is look in the mirror,’” the “Law & Order” actress said. “She’s with me still.”