Eileen Herlie was born Eileen Herlihy on March 8, 1920 in Glaslow, Scotland. She was born to a Catholic father and a Protestant mother. She was married and divorced once, but had no children with her ex-husband. When she was young, Herlie was trained as a theatre actress and her first break came when she was cast in a film adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In 1955 she appeared as Irene Molloy in the Broadway production The Matchmaker. She was nominated for a Tony award for her role in Take Me Along, another Broadway production. In 1976 she was broke into television soap operas, being cast as Myrtle Fargate on All My Children and in the 1980s she was nominated three consecutive times for the Daytime Emmy Awards.
Myrtle Fargate is played by Eileen Herlie in the soap opera All My Children. Myrtle is a former carny and partner in crime to Phoebe Tyler Walingford. Phoebe was trying to break up her son, Lincoln's marriage to Kitty Shea but a real bond had grown between Kitty and Myrtle, therefore the plan had failed. Kitty was then diagnosed with a deadly disease and Myrtle and Lincoln tried their best to make her last months happy ones. Myrtle met and fell in love with Nigel Fargate and when he passed away, she moved back to Pine Valley. Myrtle owns a boutique and a boarding house.