Eileen Fulton dead: As The World Turns star dies aged 91 as tributes pour in

Eileen Fulton has died at the age of 91. Her family announced her death in an obituary and confirmed that she died in Asheville, North Carolina, on July 14. She was best known for spending 50 years playing Lisa Miller in the CBS soap opera As The World Turns. She occupied the role for half a century from May 1960 through September 2010 and cemented herself as one of the "bad girls" of daytime television. Her role put her into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame in 1998, and it earned her a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

The role of Lisa Miller was originally created as a short-term character and “nice girl” planned for actress Lois Smith. After the show went off air in 2010, Eileen was known as one of the longest-tenured soap opera stars in U.S. TV history.

Tributes have now started pouring in for the star. One person on X left a tribute saying, "Eileen Fulton deserves so much credit for every bad girl who came after her. This woman was an original and a legend. RIP."

A second also commented: "Eileen Fulton was the original bad girl of all soaps. She was the prototype for them all. #Rip." A third similarly typed online: "Eileen Fulton was a wonderful talent with boundless energy and a hoot to interview (plus I got a kick out of her cabaret shows). RIP to a true soap opera legend."

A fourth also said: "Rest in peace, Eileen Fulton from “As the World Turns”aka Tom Hughes’s iconic mother, Lisa Grimaldi, the stylish newspaper and fashion boutique owner. Really enjoyed her character a lot."

Eileen's character Lisa was known for having eight husbands, as true daytime icons do. Three of her marriages ended in divorce, four ended in death, and one marriage was annulled. By the time the show finished, her character's full name was Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Colman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn.

In addition to appearing in 1,800 episodes of As the World Turns, Eileen played Lisa in the show’s short-lived primetime spinoff, Our Private World.

In real life, unlike her character Lisa, Eileen was married and divorced only three times. She is survived by her brother, Charles Furman McLarty, and sister-in-law, Chris Page McLarty.