Eileen Fulton, the pioneering actress who spent nearly five decades portraying one of daytime television’s first villainous characters on the CBS soap opera “As the World Turns,” died July 14, 2025, in Asheville, North Carolina. She was 91.
Fulton died after a period of declining health, according to an obituary shared by Groce Funeral Home. Born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty on September 13, 1933, in Asheville, she was the daughter of James B. McLarty, a Methodist minister, and Margaret Glenn McLarty, a public school teacher.
Fulton joined “As the World Turns” in May 1960, originally cast for what was supposed to be a three-month summer storyline as Lisa Miller, a character initially written as a sweet girl next door. However, Fulton transformed the role into television’s first daytime villainess, creating a template that would influence soap opera characters for decades to come.
The role came to Fulton when the original choice, actress Lois Smith, was unavailable. Despite competing against approximately 250 other actresses at the audition, Fulton expressed confidence she would secure the part. She deliberately chose to portray Lisa with a conniving edge rather than as the wholesome character originally envisioned by the writers.
During her remarkable tenure on the show, Lisa Miller’s character married eight times, with actor Nicolas Coster portraying two of her husbands. Three marriages ended in divorce, four ended with her husband’s death, and one was annulled. By the series’ conclusion in September 2010, her character’s full name had become Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn.
Fulton’s portrayal proved so compelling that she required bodyguard protection from viewers who disapproved of her character’s behavior. The intensity of audience reaction was both a source of pride and concern for the actress, who understood that strong emotional responses indicated successful storytelling.
Beyond “As the World Turns,” Fulton demonstrated remarkable versatility as a performer. During the early 1960s, she simultaneously appeared on the live morning broadcast of the soap opera while performing in Broadway’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” during matinee performances and starring in the off-Broadway musical “The Fantasticks” in the evenings.
In 1965, Fulton starred in the primetime spinoff “Our Private World,” which followed her character Lisa as she moved to Chicago. The series aired Wednesday and Friday nights on CBS but was canceled after four months, prompting her return to the original series in 1966.
The actress temporarily left “As the World Turns” multiple times throughout her career. Her first departure in 1963 was to pursue other theatrical opportunities, including an off-Broadway production of “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” opposite Hal Holbrook. However, when viewers rejected her replacement and Fulton struggled to find other work, she returned to the show.
In 1983, Fulton exited due to a contract dispute and was replaced by Betsy von Furstenberg. When she learned writers were considering killing off Lisa, she negotiated another comeback, noting that audiences would only believe the character’s death if she performed it herself.
Fulton’s contributions to daytime television were formally recognized when she was inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2004, she received a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award, telling the Television Academy Foundation, “I hate to sound ungracious, but I felt it was about time.”
During the 1970s, Fulton famously negotiated a clause in her contract guaranteeing she would never be required to portray a grandmother, believing such roles lacked romantic storylines. This restriction was eventually lifted as soap opera storytelling evolved.
After graduating from Greensboro College in 1956 with a degree in music, Fulton moved to New York to pursue acting. She studied with renowned instructors Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and Lee Strasberg, with future actor Keir Dullea among her classmates.
In addition to her acting career, Fulton was an accomplished author, co-writing two autobiographies: “How My World Turns” in 1970 and “As My World Still Turns” in 1995. She also published six murder mystery novels and performed cabaret acts in clubs throughout New York City and Los Angeles for several years.
Fulton retired from acting in 2019 and relocated to Black Mountain, North Carolina. Unlike her character Lisa, who married eight times, Fulton was married and divorced three times in her personal life.
She is survived by her brother Charles Furman McLarty, her niece Katherine Morris and her children Everly Ann Morris and Easton Lane Morris, and her sister-in-law Chris Page McLarty. A funeral service will be held Saturday, August 9, at Central United Methodist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.