Eileen Fulton, longtime 'As the World Turns' star, passes away in North Carolina

Eileen Fulton, who starred as Lisa Miller on 'As the World Turns' for 50 years, has died at 91.

Eileen Fulton, known for her role as Lisa Miller on CBS’ As the World Turns, has died at the age of 91 in Asheville, North Carolina. Her family confirmed her death on July 14 2025 following a period of declining health.

Fulton, born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty in Asheville on September 13 1933, became a defining figure in daytime television. She portrayed Lisa Miller from 1960 until the soap’s final broadcast in 2010, making her one of the longest-serving soap opera actors in US television history.

Initially created as a short-term role, her portrayal transformed Lisa into one of daytime television’s first complex female characters, earning Fulton a place in the Soap Opera Hall of Fame in 1998 and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Before her television success, Fulton graduated from Greensboro College in 1956 with a music degree and moved to New York to pursue acting.

She trained under renowned instructors Sanford Meisner, Lee Strasberg, and Martha Graham before making her film debut in Girl of the Night in 1960.

While starring in As the World Turns, which was broadcast live at the time, she also performed on stage in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway and The Fantasticks off-Broadway.

Fulton later expanded her career to writing, co-authoring two autobiographies, How My World Turns in 1970 and As My World Still Turns in 1995, and publishing several murder-mystery novels.

Fulton is survived by her brother, Charles Furman McLarty, niece Katherine Morris and their children, and sister-in-law Chris Page McLarty.