It's a gloomy day for Pine Valley as the cast and crew of ABC's All My Children mourn the death of Eileen Herlie, who played the bubbly and feisty Myrtle Fargate.  According to the network's website, the actress died on Wednesday from complications from pneumonia.  She was 90.

Herlie, whose stint on All My Children spans more than three decades, joined the soap in 1976 as a former carny and a somewhat partner-in-crime to Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, as she was trying to break up her son, Lincoln's marriage to Kitty Shea.  Eventually, she became Erica Kane's (Susan Lucci) surrogate mother and the surrogate grandmother to Erica's children, Kendall Hart, Josh Madden and Bianca Montgomery.  As such, she was often considered a member of the Kane-Montgomery family.  Her last episode aired on June 23.

During her time on All My Children, Herlie was nominated for three consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards from 1984 to 1986.  She also became very close friends with fellow cast member Louis Edmonds, and spoke at his funeral in 2001.

Aside from doing soaps, Herlie had an impressive stage and film career.  She sharpened her acting skills in theater on both side of the Atlantic, performing on London's West End and on Broadway. Eventually, she got her first film break when she was cast by Laurence Olivier in his 1948 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which she played Hamlet's mother, Gertrude, despite the fact that she was 13 years younger than Olivier, who portrayed her son, Hamlet.  Later, she reprised the said role in the Broadway production starring Richard Burton and then again, repeated her Gertrude in the 1964 film version of the Broadway stage production.

Herlie's other credits included One Life to Live, The Woman I Love, She Didn't Say No!, and The Angel with the Trumpet, among others.


-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: ABC
(Image courtesy of ABC)