The 'Law & Order: SVU' actor works to help abuse victims – on the screen and off (2680 hits)
When Mariska Hargitay first played Detective (now Sergeant) Olivia Benson on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in September 1999, Bill Clinton was president. Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace was in theaters. J.K. Rowling had just published Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book in the series.
And when the 17th season of SVU kicked off last month, kids who were babies during that long-ago first season were entering their junior year in high school.
Hargitay is one of the keys to the seemingly endless popularity of the often gut-wrenching crime drama: Her Benson is at once amazingly heroic and totally relatable. She's the nurturing friend you'd call first when you found out your boyfriend was cheating on you -- and the badass cop you'd want in your corner if that boyfriend turned out to like to use his fists.
Hargitay was the first lead actor from any of the behemoth Law & Order franchise series to win an Emmy Award (in 2006), and she earned leading actress Emmy nominations 8 years in a row.
