Born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland, Eileen Herlie worked for several years in the Scottish National Theatre and in the English theater in the company of Tyrone Guthrie. Among her first plays on the London stage was Jean Cocteau's The Eagle Has Two Heads.

Ms. Herlie starred on Broadway as Queen Gertrude opposite Richard Burton's Hamlet and played the same role in the film with Sir Laurence Olivier as Hamlet. Other Broadway roles include The Matchmaker, with Ruth Gordon; Take Me Along, with Jackie Gleason and Walter Pidgeon; All American, with Ray Bolger; and in Crown Matrimonial, in the role of Queen Mary.

Ms. Herlie’s film credits include Freud, with Montgomery Clift; and Sidney Lumet's The Seagull, with Simone Signoret.

Eileen Herlie joined the cast of All My Children in 1976 as Myrtle Lum Fargate.