Melinda Culea

Melinda Culea was born in a suburb of Chicago on May 5, 1955. At the age of 20, she moved to New York to join a prestigious modeling agency; her first marriage broke up in the process. After four years in New York, she moved to California to break into the TV industry. After doing a number of commercials, including a successful Burger King campaign, she landed a starring role in the sitcom pilot Dear Teacher (1981). Though that pilot didn't sell, she soon got what seemed like her big break when she won the role of Amy Allen, the female lead in The A-Team (1983). Though the pilot episode presented Amy as a spunky, Howard Hawksian heroine, in subsequent episodes, the role became little more than that of a token female, tagging along with the heroes but rarely having much to do with the plot. At the time, Culea expressed dissatisfaction with the insignificance of her part, and began lobbying for the writers to give her more to do. Reportedly, she asked that her character be allowed to par