Marla Heasley
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Marla Heasley (b. September 4, 1959 in Hollywood, California) is an American film and TV actress. She is best known for her role in the 1980s hit TV series The A-Team as Tawnia Baker; a reporter working with the team. Introduced in the second season episode 'The Battle Of Bel-Air', the character was brought in as a replacement for Melinda Culea (Amy Allen), who was abruptly dropped from the series after insisting on being given more to do. Although a regular, Heasley as Tawnia was not added to the show's opening credits, and did not appear in every single episode during her time with the series. The character was married off, in order to be written out of the series, in the early third season feature-length / two-part adventure The Bend In The River. One of the reasons for the character being dropped is believed to be due to series star George Peppard, who continually insisted to the producers that the show didn't need a female co-star.
Marla's only feature film roles were The Marrying Man in 1991, and Born to Race and Amore! in 1993.
She has made guest appearances on many TV shows such as, TJ Hooker, The Love Boat, Riptide, Mike Hammer, The Highwayman and many more.
She was once engaged to singer Wayne Newton for eight years ending in 1992. She is currently married to Christopher Harriman an international business developer. Harriman was a successful recording artist in the early 1980's in Europe.
Her character from The A-Team, Tawnia Baker, was named after the creator of the series Stephen J. Cannell's daughter, Tawnia Cannell. Marla made a guest appearance as a character called Cherise in an another episode of The A-Team ('Bad Time On The Border') a couple of months prior to playing Tawnia Baker.
