Eileen Fulton, the actress who originated the soap opera “vixen” trope as Lisa Miller on CBS‘ As the World Turns, died July 14 at the age of 91 in Asheville, N.C. after a period of declining health, her family announced in an obituary.
Known as the first bad girl of daytime television, Fulton occupied the role from May 1960 through September 2010, when the sudser went off the air, making her one of the longest-tenured soap opera stars in U.S. TV history. Initially created as a short-term character and “nice girl” planned for actress Lois Smith, the role catapulted Fulton into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame in 1998 and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty in Asheville on September 13, 1933 to a Methodist minister father and public school teacher mother, Fulton graduated from Greensboro College with a bachelor’s degree in music in 1956 before moving to New York to pursue an acting career — a move that was strongly supported by her parents.
Studying under famed acting coaches Sanford Meisner and Lee Strasberg at the Neighborhood Playhouse, as well as lauded dance teacher Martha Graham, she soon transitioned to her stage name and in 1960 was cast in Girl of the Night, her debut feature.
At one point during her tenure on As the World Turns, then broadcast live, she was simultaneously appearing on Broadway in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks.
Also a writer and singer, Fulton performed a cabaret act for years in venues across New York and Los Angeles. In 1970, she co-authored her first autobiography, How My World Turns, and in 1995, she co-authored a second, called As My World Still Turns. Additionally, she wrote a series of murder-mystery novels, as well as a novel called Soap Opera.
Fulton retired in 2019 and moved to Black Mountain, N.C. She is survived by her brother, Charles Furman McLarty, niece Katherine Morris and their children, as well as sister-in-law Chris Page McLarty.
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