Mary Hart (born November 8, 1950) is an American television personality and has been the host of the syndicated gossip and entertainment round-up program Entertainment Tonight since 1982.

Mary Hart was born Mary Johanna Harum in Madison, South Dakota and lived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as well as in Denmark, as a child and teenager.She speaks both Danish and Swedish fluently. Hart competed in the Miss America pageant in 1970 as Miss South Dakota, and finished in the top ten.Two years later, Hart graduated from Augustana College in Sioux Falls and while teaching English at school she also produced and anchored her own cable TV talk show.

Hart began her TV career at KMTV, the CBS station in Omaha, NE. In 1976, she went to KTVY (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City, where she co-hosted a show called Dannysday. Determined to leave journalism behind, she moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood in 1979 with $10,000 in the bank.[6] Hart landed a small role on the soap opera "Days of our Lives," as well as some TV commercials. Almost broke, she became a co-host on a Los Angeles local program, "PM Magazine." That led to a job in 1981 as co-host of Regis Philbin's first national talk show. When that show was canceled four months later, "Entertainment Tonight" interviewed her about what it felt like to be canceled. The day after the interview, she was hired as an "E. T." correspondent. Thirteen weeks later, she was named the show's co-host, along with Ron Hendren.[7]

In 1984, Hendren was replaced by Robb Weller, who was replaced by John Tesh in 1986, who was replaced by Bob Goen in 1996, who was replaced by Mark Steines.[8][9] Soon after her hiring by ET, Hart chose Jay Bernstein as her manager. Hart is known for her shapely legs, leading to an endorsement contract with Hanes for that company's line of pantyhose in 1987. Jay Bernstein had her legs insured for $1 million each.[10][11]Executive Producer Linda Blue Bell described Hart as the face of E.T.[12]

During the summer of 1988, Hart appeared in Las Vegas with comedian Devid Bremmer at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino, which realized another of her childhood dreams, singing and dancing on stage. She continued her work with Paramount in Los Angeles while performing her stint in Las Vegas, flying between the cities after two shows in Vegas, the last at 11:00PM, to film E.T. the following morning at 8:00AM.[13]

In 1991, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that Hart's voice had triggered seizures in an epileptic woman.[14] This was later referenced in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures[15] and the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, where Kramer (Michael Richards) suffers from convulsions whenever he hears Hart's voice.

Hart has been parodied in Animaniacs in the character "Mary Heartless". She had also voiced a cartoon character named "Fairy Hart" in an episode of The Fairly OddParents where Bob Goen voiced "Bob Glimmer", and in The Fairly Oddparents TV movie, Fairly OddBaby.
Hart at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009

In May 2009, Hart suffered a broken left wrist[16] due to an accident at home (not due to any exotic activity, despite her jokes about it). While the wrist was healing, she wore various brightly colored slings designed to match or complement her wardrobe for each show.

On August 5, 2010, Hart announced that she was leaving the show at the end of the upcoming 30th season, citing that she was ready for a change.