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Eileen Herlie

Published Tuesday 28 October 2008 at 10:40 by Patrick Newley

The distinguished British stage and screen actress Eileen Herlie won international acclaim when she played the role of Queen Gertrude to Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet in the 1948 screen version. It was a part she was to play many times, notably opposite Richard Burton, in John Gielgud’s Broadway production in 1964.

In 1946 she stunned London critics and audiences alike when she was cast as the queen in Jean Cocteau’s The Eagle Has Two Heads, when she delivered a 27-minute soliloquy, believed to be the longest speech in the history of the stage.

In her later career she moved to America and was known to TV audiences for her portrayal of the wise matron Myrtle Fargate in the daytime soap opera, All My Children. She first appeared in the role in 1976 and gave her last performance in June this year.

Eileen Isobel Herlihy was born in Glasgow on March 18, 1918 and educated at Shawlands Academy. She made her first stage appearance with the Scottish National Players soon after she moved to London, where she made a name for herself in the West End. She played Mrs de Winter in Rebecca (1943) and then joined the Old Vic Theatre Company from 1943-45.

Under contract to the powerful HM Tennant management she won acclaim for her roles in productions such as The Trojan Women, The Time of Your Life and The Thracian Horses.

In 1953 she was Mrs Marwood in The Way of the World at the Lyric, Hammersmith, and the following year, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she was Mrs Molloy in Thornton Wilder’s Matchmaker. The show transferred to Broadway in 1955.

Herlie became one of Broadway’s biggest stars and among her most notable credits were Peter Ustinov’s Photo Finish (1963) and Halfway Up the Tree (1967), and she won critical acclaim for her role as Queen Mary in Royce Ryton’s Crown Matrimonial (1973), which she also toured.

A prolific screen actress, she appeared in films such as For Better, For Worse (1954), Freud (1962) and The Seagull (1968).

Herlie’s two marriages ended in divorce. She died on October 8, aged 90. She is survived by her brother.

Recalling her role as Queen Gertrude to Olivier’s Hamlet, she said: “Olivier called me on the phone and said, ‘Eileen, we are going to do this with Freud’s Oedipal complex in mind.’ I said, ‘Oh, what a good idea, Larry.’ After I hung up, I had to ring a friend and ask, what’s an Oedipal complex?”

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