Mariska Hargitay Learns She Was Left Behind at Scene of Fatal Crash That Killed Her Mother Jayne Mansfield

Nearly six decades after the car accident that claimed the life of Hollywood actress Jayne Mansfield, her daughter, Mariska Hargitay, has revealed a haunting new detail—she was initially left behind in the wreckage.

In her new HBO documentary, “My Mom Jayne,” which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Festival in New York on June 13, Hargitay—now 61—uncovers the revelation during an emotional conversation with her brother, Zoltan Hargitay. The documentary marks the Emmy-winning actress’s directorial debut and offers an intimate portrait of her mother’s life and legacy and the tragic night that changed everything.

The fatal crash occurred on June 29, 1967, as the family traveled from Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans. The vehicle collided with the rear of a tractor-trailer that had slowed behind a mosquito fogging truck, reducing visibility. The crash instantly killed Mansfield, her boyfriend Sam Brody, and their driver, Ronald B. Harrison. Mansfield was 34 years old.

Mariska, then just 3, was asleep in the backseat alongside her two older brothers, Zoltan, 6, and Mickey Jr., 8. In the film, Zoltan recalls waking up at the scene and hearing their mother’s voice reassuring him.

“I often think about why she didn’t just stay in the backseat with us?” he said, according to People. “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.”

A woman at the scene rescued Zoltan and Mickey Jr. from the wreckage. Mickey initially mistook the blonde-haired woman for their mother, only realizing the truth when she turned to face him. It wasn’t until Zoltan asked where their sister was that the rescuers discovered a third child had been in the vehicle. According to Hargitay’s stepmother, Ellen Hargitay, emergency responders returned to the car and found young Mariska wedged beneath the front passenger seat with a head injury.

“Thank God Zolie woke up,” Ellen said in the film.

Despite the trauma of that night, Hargitay has no memory of the crash itself.

“I don’t remember the accident,” she told Vanity Fair. “I don’t even remember being told that my mother had died.”

The documentary, which also screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May, explores Mansfield’s rise and tragic fall, but it also reveals another personal truth long shielded from the public eye. In her 20s, Hargitay discovered that her biological father was not actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, as she had believed, but entertainer Nelson Sardelli, now in his 90s.

“I grew up where I was supposed to, and I do know that everyone made the best choice for me,” she told Vanity Fair. “I’m Mickey Hargitay’s daughter—that is not a lie.”

Today, Hargitay is best known for her long-running role as Olivia Benson on NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” She says the motivation for “My Mom Jayne” stemmed from a desire to take back ownership of her family’s story.

“This is my story to tell,” she told People at the Tribeca premiere. “I had a rough time with the fact that somebody else told it before I did, and that was the impetus of the movie—that I wanted to tell my story.”