Eileen Fulton, "As The World Turns" Soap Opera Star and Theater Actress, Dies at 91 Victoria Edel, Escher WalcottJuly 20, 2025 at 4:26 AM Bryan Bedder/Getty Eileen Fulton in 2010.
- - - Eileen Fulton, "As The World Turns" Soap Opera Star and Theater Actress, Dies at 91
Victoria Edel, Escher WalcottJuly 20, 2025 at 4:26 AM
Bryan Bedder/Getty
Eileen Fulton in 2010.
Eileen Fulton, the actress famed for starring in As the World Turns, has died at 91
According to an obituary, she had a period of "declining health" before her death on July 14
Fulton received one Emmy nomination and the Emmy Daytime Lifetime Achievement Award during her long acting career
Eileen Fulton, legendary soap actress, has died. She was 91.
Fulton died on July 14 in her hometown of Asheville, N.C., "after a period of declining health," according to an obituary from Groce Funeral Home.
She was best known for playing the role of Lisa Grimaldi on As the World Turns. She appeared on the soap opera from 1960 until the show ended in 2010, and her 50-year tenure made her one of the longest-running actors in soap operas.
Fulton was born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty in Asheville in 1933. Her father was a minister, and the family moved around a lot for his job.
Back in 1998, she told CBS News that her first performance took place in church when she was 2, saying, "I jumped from my mother's lap and ran to the altar and sang, 'Mama's little baby loves shortening bread.' They couldn't shut me up, and they haven't been able to shut me up since."
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Don Hastings and Eileen Fulton on 'As the World Turns' in 1962.
She went on to study drama and music at Greensboro College. After graduation, she started working with a local church choir, but her eyes were on New York City.
"I dreamed of being the greatest actress on Broadway," she told The Washington Post in 1990.
Fulton moved to New York in 1956 and took classes with the legendary acting teachers Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg. She adopted Eileen Fulton as a stage name and worked modeling gigs to support herself before appearing in the 1960 film Girl of the Night.
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Eileen Fulton on 'Our Private World', a spin-off of 'As the World Turns', in 1965.
Also in 1960, Fulton landed the role of Lisa on As the World Turns, which was in its fourth year. It was originally supposed to be a short role with the character meant to be a good girl. Don Hastings played her love interest, Bob Hughes, for most of the soap's run.
"I had a lot of experience being conniving as a minister's daughter," Fulton told NPR in 2010. "I found the people in my daddy's church fascinating. When I went up for Lisa, she was just a nice girl next door. And just for the summer, for Bob's interest. I didn't want to play anything so close to myself. So I decided to just give her a background."
She continued, "I thought about where her family came from. I thought about what she really wanted. And I thought amazing thoughts when I did those scenes. I didn't change their lines — not yet, because I knew better — but I certainly had other ideas about what I'd like to do with that Bob. And it read." Soon, she was on the show long-term.
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Eileen Fulton and four Chippendale dancers in 1984.
"I'm the classic daytime meanie," Fulton told PEOPLE in 1978 of Lisa. "I've had 32 lovers, four husbands, two children and one phantom fetus."
"They hated her — and I thought it was fabulous," she told NPR of fan reaction to her character. Once, she told the outlet, a woman even hit her in the middle of a department store. "And people looked at me like I was rotten and this woman was a heroine. But I thought, you know what? I've reached them."
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Eileen Fulton in 1990.
Fulton earned a reputation as a diva during her early years, which she didn't mind. "I want things done right," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2000, "but I've learned that there's a nice way to ask."
In the show's early days, it was filmed live, and when a writer wouldn't tell her if Lisa was the murderer in an ongoing plot line, she said, "We're live — don't forget. And if you don't tell me, I'll make up your mind for you on the air."
Fulton also starred in the theater, including in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? on Broadway in 1963 and Off-Broadway in The Fantasticks. But As the World Turns was the main focus of her career.
In 1965, she starred on a brief spin-off series, Our Private World, as well.
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From left: Shawn Christian, Eileen Fulton and Alexander Walton for 'As the World Turns' circa 1996.
In the late '60s, Fulton had it written into her contract, for a time, that Lisa would not become a grandmother. The ban was eventually lifted. "At that time, grandmothers had no romance at all — and I wasn't about to let that happen to me," she told the Los Angeles Times in 2000.
Although Fulton was a soap staple, she received her first (and only) Emmy nomination in 1988. ''All the actors get to choose the category they'd like to be in, and I wasn't going to put myself down for anything,'' she told PEOPLE in 1988. ''But I was told I had to choose something, and that's when I got smart. I thought I was never going to win anyway, so I chose 'aging ingenue,' which of course isn't a real category. They didn't allow that, so I put myself in for supporting actress and finally got nominated.''
Fulton was inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame a decade later. She also received a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 2004. As the World Turns ended in 2010.
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Eileen Fulton in 2003.
Beginning in the '80s, Fulton began publishing novels, first mysteries and later a romance. She also published a memoir, 1995's As My World Still Turns: The Uncensored Memoirs of America's Soap Opera Queen. She also continued to perform in her own cabaret show.
Fulton married three times: to Bill Cochrane in 1957, record producer Danny Fortunato in 1970 before splitting in 1980 and Rick McMorrow in 1989, whom she divorced three months later.
She told The New York Times in 1995, "I have gone through two lives, my own and Lisa's, and not many actors get to do that."
Fulton retired in 2019 and moved back to Black Mountain, N.C.
According to Groce Funeral Home, her funeral service will be held on Saturday, Aug. 9.
The actress is survived by her brother, Charles McLarty (her second brother James died before her) and sister-in-law Chris McLarty and niece.
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