He was an underground resistance fighter after the Nazis coerced Hungary to sign the Tripartite Pact, forcing the kingdom to join the Axis powers in World War II. He fled the country in 1947 to escape the compulsory Soviet military draft. In the United States he began bodybuilding and won the 1955 Championship title. He, and actress Jayne Mansfield, are the parents of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress Mariska Hargitay. In 2003 he appeared in the Special Victims Unit episode "Control" with his daughter. He died in 2006 of multiple myeloma.