Eileen Fulton, As The World Turns Lisa Grimaldi, Dies at 91

As The World Turns spoilers and updates reveal Eileen Fulton, who started her many years in Oakdale as Lisa Hughes, passed away at 91 years young. Ms. Fulton, who played on the CBS soap from four years past its beginning to its end, passed away after a period of declining health.

Almost Fifty Years Portraying Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn

Eileen Fulton spent almost 50 years on the CBS soap opera, playing a schemer who had eight husbands counting Martin Chedwyn (Simon Prebble); most viewers wouldn’t remember him, and it was annulled.

She was the minister’s daughter who portrayed Lisa Miller, one of the first ‘bad girls’ in daytime TV. Fulton passed away on Monday, July 14, in Asheville, North Carolina, the city of her birth, as confirmed by her family.

She joined the top daytime drama, As the World Turns, in 1960, initially for a three-month summer storyline, four years into the show’s run.

Fulton left the soap three times — once to star in her own primetime spinoff, 1965’s Our Private World — but remained until the final episode aired on September 17, 2010.

Lisa, The Original Soap Opera Bad Girl

Lisa had eight husbands, with Nicolas Coster playing two of them; Eduardo Grimaldi on ATWT and John Eldridge on “Our Private World”. Three of her marriages ended in divorce, four ended with death, and one was annulled, and she also had many lovers over the years.

“She’s a romantic, that’s why she falls in love so much,” Fulton mentioned in a 2005 interview for the Television Academy Foundation website The Interviews. Inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame in 1998 and awarded a lifetime achievement award from the Daytime Emmys in 2004, Fulton was among the first to have her own publicist. She also hired a bodyguard to shield her from upset viewers who disapproved of Lisa’s actions; “They had a great love/hate relationship with me, it was incredible,” she remarked.

The First Soap Opera Grandmother To Have A Love Life After Demanding She Never Became One

Lisa was a rather scandalous character back in the day, one might even describe her as infamous! Lisa was well-known for having eight lovers she never married, on top of the eight men she did marry, which included her former brother-in-law, Don Hughes (Martin West)!

In the 1970s, Fulton made sure to have a clause in her contract that assured she would never have to portray a grandmother.

“Back then, grandmothers had no romance whatsoever — and I refused to let that be my fate,” she stated in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2000. Eventually, she became comfortable with that but had at least one grandchild by the time she married Eduardo Grimaldi anyway.

Eileen Fulton Was Born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty In Asheville, North Carolina

Margaret Elizabeth McLarty, the eldest of three siblings, was born in Asheville on September 13, 1933. Her mother, Peggy, worked as a schoolteacher, while her father, James, served as a Methodist preacher. She recalls realizing by the third grade that her dream was to become an actress.

After completing her education at Lee Edwards High School in her hometown, she graduated in 1956 with a major in music and drama from Greensboro College.

Following that, she relocated to New York to study acting under Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, where she had Keir Dullea as a classmate.

Fulton Did Other Acting Ahead Of The CBS Soap

Fulton had portrayed a hooker in Girl of the Night (1960), featuring Anne Francis, when someone from ATWT contacted her manager.

Originally, it was to check if one of his clients, Lois Smith from East of Eden, was free to take on the role of Lisa; since Smith was unavailable, he recommended Fulton. “I was certain I would land that role. There were 250 other girls at the audition, but I just felt it,” she recalled; Lisa “was meant to be the sweet girl next door.

Fulton continued, “ I told myself, ‘I’m done with being the sweet girl next door; while I can’t alter the lines, I can shift my intention once we’re live. I started thinking of little devious things I could do to Bob Hughes-“ that would be her first television husband, portrayed by Don Hastings.

Theatre Work

In the early 1960s, Fulton had a hectic schedule where she would start her mornings working on ATWT (when it was broadcast live), then rush to the Billy Rose Theater. This was on Broadway to portray Honey in the matinee performances of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

After that, she would head downtown to the Sullivan Street Playhouse in the evenings to perform in The Fantasticks. In 1963, Fulton left As the World Turns for the first time to pursue other opportunities, which included an off-Broadway role alongside Hal Holbrook in Abe Lincoln in Illinois.

However, she faced challenges in securing new roles, and her replacement, Pamela King, did not resonate with the audience, leading to her eventual return.

Off The Main Show, To The Spinoff, And Back To The Main Show Again

In 1965, she left once more to star in Our Private World, which was shown on CBS on Wednesday and Friday nights. After breaking up with Bob, Lisa had left Oakdale to move to Chicago, where she married the rich John Eldridge.

However, Our Private World was canceled in September after only four months on the air, and Fulton returned to As the World Turns in 1966.

In 1983, Fulton left due to a contract disagreement and was replaced by Betsy von Furstenberg-but when she learned that the writers were considering killing off Lisa, she made a comeback. “I don’t think anyone would believe Lisa is dead unless I do it,” she stated.

Author, Cabaret Performer, Owner Of A JC Penney Clothing Line-Married Three Times

Fulton co-wrote two autobiographies, How My World Turns in 1970 and As My World Still Turns in 1995; several murder mysteries; and another book, Soap Opera: A Novel in 1999. She was also a cabaret performer and had her own clothing line at J.C. Penney.

In reality, Fulton, in contrast to Lisa, had been married (and divorced) just three times; her surviving relatives include her brother, Charles, and her niece, Katherine. There is no record of any children with any of her three ex-husbands.

In the late 1980s, she penned six murder mystery novels: Take One for Murder, Death of a Golden Girl, Dying for Stardom, Lights, Camera, Death, A Setting for Murder, and Fatal Flashback.

Eileen Fulton Said People Used To Hate Lisa

In a 2010 interview with NPR, the actress acknowledged that many viewers disliked her character. There was one incident that stood out. “I was in front of Lord & Taylor. I had only been on the show for a few weeks,” she recounted. “A beautifully dressed woman in a Chanel suit — back when there were no knockoffs — approached me and said, ‘Aren’t you Lisa?’ I replied, ‘Yes, that’s the role I play.’

Then she said, ‘Well, I hate you!’ and she hit me-people stared at me as if I was terrible and this woman was a hero. “But I thought, ‘You know what? I’ve made an impact;’ then a telegram arrived at the studio-saying, ‘If that bitch Lisa marries Bob I’ll never watch As the World Turns again.”

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