Mariska Hargitay Learns Elizabeth Taylor Was One of Her Biggest Fans

Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay comes from a Hollywood family. Her parents were movie stars Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay so, she certainly grew up meeting a famous celebrity or two. But she was still floored recently to find out that a Hollywood legend admired her acting.

Mariska Hargitay Gets A Shock

Model and businesswoman Kathy Ireland recently posted on Twitter something that she was too shy to tell Hargitay when she saw her at an airport. She took the opportunity when Hargitay posted her own tweet to promote the new SVU episode and responded with a fun fact.

“Twitter, did you know @Mariska was Elizabeth Taylor’s favorite actress?” Ireland tweeted. “True. They met when ET was filming ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ when Mariska was a child. Elizabeth loved you Mariska & never missed an episode of yours Wanted to tell you at the airport–was too shy! xo.”

Hargitay responded by simply saying she’s “floored” to learn that the violet-eyed legendary Oscar winner was an admirer of hers.

Hargitay was born on January 23, 1964, and the film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf was released on June 22, 1966, so, it’s likely that Taylor met Hargitay when she was still sleeping in a crib each night!

A Past Connection

Taylor shared with Us Weekly in 2011 her admiration for Hargitay and revealed that she knew Taylor’s children. “I’m mad for Law & Order and have seen every single episode,” Taylor told Us. “My children and Mariska Hargitay, a dazzling actress, played together as kids.”

While Taylor never appeared on Law & Order or any of the brand’s spinoff series, she did appear on television later in her career on such series as General Hospital, The Simpsons, The Nanny, Murphy Brown, and the TV mini-series North and South: Book 1 and the TV-movie Malice in Wonderland.

Taylor passed away on March 23, 2011, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. She was 79 and died of congestive heart failure, surrounded by her children Michael Wilding, Christopher Wilding, Liza Todd, and Maria Burton. Taylor also had 10 grandchildren. Law & Order: SVU airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.