Bodybuilder-turned-actor Mickey Hargitay has died at the age of 80, according to an Associated Press report. Born in Hungary, a country he fled to avoid being drafted into the military during the Iron Curtain-era, his bodybuilding skills earned him the title of Mr. Universe in 1955. Three years later he married Jayne Mansfield, his second wife. (Look for him in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
They had three children–including Mariska Hargitay of Law And Order: Special Vicitims Unit fame–and divorced in 1964. Hargitay subsequently appeared in a handful of low-budget, mostly European-produced genre films in the '60s and early-'70s. He returned to acting in 2003, appearing opposite Mariska in an episode of her show.
Sort-of a proto-Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hargitay was played by Schwarzenegeer in the 1982 made-for-TV film The Jayne Mansfield Story.