Douglas Marland

Douglas Marland (born Marland Messner, May 5, 1934 - March 6, 1993) was an American actor and writer of soap operas. He began his soap opera career as an actor, appearing on the Irna Phillips series The Brighter Day and As the World Turns. He also did odd jobs on the side as a director for small theatre groups. On one such job, staging the DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson musical "Good News!", he worked with Broadway dancer Edie Cowan and pianist Et... More

Douglas Marland (born Marland Messner, May 5, 1934 - March 6, 1993) was an American actor and writer of soap operas. He began his soap opera career as an actor, appearing on the Irna Phillips series The Brighter Day and As the World Turns. He also did odd jobs on the side as a director for small theatre groups. On one such job, staging the DeSylva, Brown, and Henderson musical "Good News!", he worked with Broadway dancer Edie Cowan and pianist Ethan Mordden, both of whom went on to professional careers as, respectively, choreographer and writer. Marland began his writing career by authoring some Nick Carter mysteries, under one of the publisher's standard pseudonyms. He first started writing scripts for soap operas in the 1970s, as a script writer for Harding Lemay on Another World. He was also the head writer of The Doctors, another soap opera that aired on NBC Daytime. He was hired by NBC Daytime in 1975 after then head writer, Margaret DePriest, left The Doctors. Despite receiving...

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