Eileen Fulton

Eileen Fulton (born Margaret Elizabeth McLarty on September 13, 1933 in Asheville, North Carolina) is an American actress.

Related Topics:
September 13 - 1933 - Asheville, North Carolina - American - Actress

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Among other roles (including the Broadway productions of The Fantasticks and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), she is most famous for her role as Lisa Miller Grimaldi on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns, a role she has played almost continually (with two notable interruptions) since May 16, 1960. She left the show in 1965 to bring her Lisa character to her own primetime soap spinoff, "Our Private World" (CBS's attempt to mimmick the success of ABC's "Peyton Place"). "Our Private World" lasted less than a season, and Fulton took several months off before returning to "As the World Turns" in early 1966. She left in 1983 after a contract dispute with executive producer Mary-Ellis Bunim, returning the next year. During Fulton's 1983-84 absence, the role of Lisa was played by Betsy von Furstenberg. (Carmen Duncan also filled in for a few days in late 2004, when Fulton was out due to illness.)

Related Topics:
The Fantasticks - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Lisa Miller Grimaldi - CBS - Soap opera - As the World Turns - May 16 - 1960 - 1965 - Primetime soap - Spinoff - Our Private World - Peyton Place - 1966 - 1983 - Mary-Ellis Bunim - Betsy von Furstenberg - Carmen Duncan

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A vixen in her earlier years, Lisa has been married eight times (divorced three times, widowed four times, her most recent marriage annulled), making her full name Lisa Miller Hughes Eldridge Shea Coleman McColl Mitchell Grimaldi Chedwyn.

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During the early 1970s, Fulton was noted for insisting it be written into her contract that her character could not become a grandmother. (She feared it would impede the glamorous, fast-paced storylines in which she was involved at the time.) As a result, the actress received enormous amounts of "hate mail" when Fulton's contractual demands necessitated that Lisa's daughter-in-law have a miscarriage. (Now in her 70s, Fulton no longer has the "granny clause", as it came to be known, in her contract; her character has two sons -- a third son died a number of years ago -- and four grandchildren.)

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She has written two memoirs, How My World Turns and As My World Still Turns. She also wrote a mystery novel, called Soap Opera, loosely based on her experiences at As the World Turns.

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She is also a singer, and performs a number of cabaret and nightclub acts, in addition to her acting.

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Fulton is a 1955 graduate of Greensboro College and was granted an honorary doctorate in 2005, on the fiftieth anniversary of her college graduation. She was the commencement speaker at Greensboro's graduation ceremony in 2005.

Related Topics:
1955 - Greensboro College - Doctorate - 2005

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