Eileen Letchworth

Eileen Letchworth (July 19, 1922 – February 15, 2003) was an American actress whose Broadway career spanned from 1947 to 1968. She was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Letchworth. Her father served as president of the Bethel Township School Board for sixteen years, and her grandfather, G. E. Letchworth, was a Methodist minister. She had one sister, Doris.

Letchworth attended Bethel High School before enrolling as a drama student at Carnegie Tech. She subsequently gained stage experience at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. In 1953, she was selected as one of three recipients of the inaugural Faculty Fund scholarships to attend the American Theatre Wing Professional Training Program, chosen from a pool of more than one hundred applicants. Each of the three recipients received one year of training through the program.

Her Broadway debut came in 1947, when she portrayed Frances in I Gotta Get Out. Following that production's failure, she returned to Pittsburgh and worked as a model. She came back to Broadway in 1958, playing June in the comedy Say, Darling. Her subsequent Broadway appearances included understudy roles in A Desert Incident (1959), The Warm Peninsula (1959), Absence of a Cello (1964), and A Very Rich Woman (1965), as well as a principal role as Mrs. Durant in Cactus Flower (1965). Away from Broadway, she took the leading female role in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs at the Hyde Park Playhouse in August 1960 and appeared in The Matchmaker at the same venue that summer. Later stage work included a role in Spofford at the Parker Playhouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1969, Amanda in The Glass Menagerie at the Rodale Theater in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1980, and Flora Van Huysen in an off-Broadway production of The Matchmaker in 1991.

Letchworth maintained a substantial television career alongside her stage work. She held recurring roles on several daytime soap operas, including Anne Mason on Another World, Sharon Feress on Love of Life, and Margo Flax on All My Children, as well as appearances on One Life to Live. Her role on All My Children drew particular public attention in 1974, when the results of her real facelift were incorporated into the show's storyline. After learning that Letchworth wanted time off for the cosmetic surgery, the program's creator, Agnes Nixon, proposed writing the procedure into the script for her character. Letchworth agreed. The surgery took place in August 1974; her doctor removed her bandages on August 12, and the following day her character's bandages were removed on air. She wore no makeup on the program for approximately one month, allowing cameras to document her face's recovery from post-surgical swelling and bruising. Beyond soap operas, she appeared on The Phil Silvers Show, talk programs hosted by Phil Donahue and Polly Bergen, and in television commercials. Her film credits included Last Summer (1969) and Gypsy 83 (2001).

Letchworth married William C. Larson on February 28, 1945. After their divorce, she married actor Paul Larson on August 14, 1966, in New York. She had a son, Eric, from her first marriage and a stepson, also named Eric, from her second. She died on February 15, 2003, in New York City, at the age of eighty.