What happened to Jayne Mansfield? Car accident incident explored as daughter Mariska Hargitay announces new documentary

Jayne Mansfield, Hollywood's most famous actress and model of the 1950s and '60s, died on June 29, 1967, after a fatal car accident. Decades later, her daughter and actress Mariska Hargitay is preserving her legacy by directing a HBO documentary called My Mom Jayne, which is to be released inJune 2025.

Born Vera Jayne Palmer in 1933, Mansfield became a film star and played roles in movies such as The Girl Can't Help It (1956) and Promises! Promises! (1963), the latter making her the first mainstream American actress to go nude in a film.

Aside from her on screen presence, Mansfield was highly intelligent with an alleged IQ of 160 and was also musically talented, being able to play the violin.

How did Jayne Mansfield die?

On June 29, 1967, Jayne Mansfield was driving from Biloxi, Mississippi, to New Orleans to make a planned television appearance. She was riding in the front seat of a 1966 Buick Electra with her boyfriend and attorney, Sam Brody, and her driver, Ronald B. Harrison.

According to History News, her three small children, including three-year-old Mariska Hargitay slept in the back seat. Early in the morning, the vehicle crashed into the rear of a semi-truck that was slowing down behind a mosquito fogging machine and emitted thick white fog. The accident is said to have killed all three adults instantly, while the children survived with light injuries.

Rumors about Jayne Mansfield’s death and Mariska Hargitay’s tribute

The sudden deaths caused due to the crash led to a massive rumor which stated that Mansfield had been beheaded. This was speculated because of some images which showed a blonde wig lying on the ground at the site of the accident, which people confused with her head being severed.

On the contrary, Jayne Mansfield was killed by a fatal head wound. Her police reports and death certificate confirmed a crushed skull and the partial separation of the cranium.

The death of Mansfield brought a major shift in car safety regulations. The US government mandated rear underride guards and steel bars on the rear of trucks, to be added to prevent such crashes in the future. These safety bars are now known as the Mansfield bars.

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Mariska Hargitay, now known most famously as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, was only three years old during the accident. Her new documentary, My Mom Jayne, will explore Jayne Mansfield's life both publicly and privately through unseen footage and intimate interviews.

"This movie is a labor of love and longing. It’s a search for the mother I never knew, an integration of a part of myself I’d never owned, and a reclaiming of my mother’s story and my own truth," she said in a statement.

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