Roger Thorpe started working for the wealthy Stanley Norris in New York fresh out of college, disappointing his father, Adam by not working for him. Wanting desperately to get ahead, Roger agreed to date Stanley's daughter, Holly. Though attracted to her, she was ultimately just a means to get ahead. Holly's mother and brother, Barbara and Ken Norris, as well as Adam disapproved of their relationship; they wanted Holly to bond with Peter Wexler. One day, when Holly and Peter went to New York, instead of seducing Peter, a rebellious Holly seduced Roger. After the seduction, Holly helped Roger to move out of his apartment in New York so that he could relocate to Springfield. However, back in Springfield, Roger started to ignore Holly since he became attracted to Janet Mason, despite the fact that she was married to Holly's brother, Ken. Undeterred, Roger tried to force himself on her but Janet held off Roger's advances. As Roger was leaving Janet's apartment, Holly was coming to see Janet, but Holly, seeing Roger leave Janet's apartment with lipstick on his collar (which he got during his fight with Janet), misconstrued the whole episode and thought that Roger and Janet had sex and she bolted from the apartment building -- Roger saw Holly and he too started after her. At that moment, Ken was coming back to Janet's apartment building and Holly in her rush ran right into him! Holly told Ken that she'd seen Roger and Janet kissing. Ken was livid and totally bought into Holly's misconstrued reconstruction of the events. Suddenly, Holly ran into the street without looking where she was going and was hit by a car. At the same time, Ken met up with Roger and beat up him up right there on the spot! That same night, while Janet and Ken grew closer, Stanley was murdered and Roger became one of the murder suspects since the gun was bought with his credit card. Later at Cedars, Holly told everyone that Roger and Janet spent the night together and that was Roger's alibi. Unfortunately, his reputation was sullied and Roger left town in disgrace.

In August 1973, a repentant Roger returned to town for his father's wedding to Barbara Norris and convinced everyone that he was a changed man. To show that he was responsible, Roger decided to start his own business. Unfortunately, things didn't work out and he soon found himself in serious financial trouble. Trying to save his business, Roger borrowed money from local loan sharks but things only got worse. Finally, he was forced to declare bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Holly discovered that she still had strong feelings for Roger --- in spite of all that had happened before. When Roger became ill at a time when Holly's husband, Ed Bauer, was out of town, Holly took advantage of the situation. While her husband was gone, she nursed Roger back to health and helped him to decorate his apartment. One thing led to another and Roger and Holly soon rekindled their earlier relationship. Not wanting to repeat his past mistakes, Roger decided to stop his affair with Holly and started dating Nurse Peggy Fletcher. Roger's life seemed to be running smoothly since he was dating Peggy and loved her son, Billy Fletcher, like his own son. Everyone noticed a change in Roger - he had grown up. Roger proposed to Peggy in 1974 but she turned him down as she was still legally married to Johnny Fletcher, who had had a nervous breakdown and mysteriously left town a few years back. Roger got tired of waiting and resumed his affair with Holly. Around this time, Roger became the manager of a restaurant called "The Metro." Peggy realized that her marriage to Johnny was over and filed for divorce. When Peggy told Roger that her divorce was final, Roger told Holly that they could only be friends. But Holly soon discovered that she was pregnant with Roger's baby! She set out to save her marriage to Ed and promptly seduced him. She then announced that she was pregnant - leading Ed to believe that the baby was his.

At this point, Roger's life started to crumble. The loan sharks came after Roger and beat him to a pulp and also threatened Peggy and Billy. Peggy broke it off with Roger in order to protect her son. To help pay off his large debts, Roger went to the one person he knew could help him financially - Holly, who was benefactor of her late father's fortune. Earnestly trying to work off his debt to Holly, Roger took on two jobs at once. He worked round-the-clock as a cab driver and waiter, until he practically dropped from exhaustion. Adam and Mike Bauer helped pay off the loan sharks. Peggy reconciled with Roger after the danger had passed. Meanwhile, Holly gave birth to Christina in July 1975. Then an event would happen that would rattle the Bauer marriage - Holly's daughter, Chrissy, became ill and required a blood transfusion to survive. But when Holly's blood couldn't be used because she had contracted hepatitis as a child, she was forced to confess her indiscretion to Ed and admit that Chrissy was Roger's daughter! Ed was furious. He told Roger that he had two weeks to confess all to Peggy or else he would do it himself. Roger considered whisking Peggy away to get married but decided that it would be better to tell her the truth. When Peggy learned the truth about Chrissy's parentage, she threw Roger out. Roger then left town leaving Jerry McFarren in charge of his club. In January 1976, Roger returned to Springfield. After seeing Roger bonding with both Chrissy and Billy, Peggy forgave him, only after he agreed to get a vasectomy. It also helped that Roger was in a supposedly legitimate business as the owner of "The Metro". Unfortunately, Roger's previous decision to leave Jerry in charge would come back to haunt him. While Roger was gone, Jerry decided this would be an opportunity to skim money out of the account of "The Metro" and gamble. Unfortunately, this would only lead Jerry into further debt and in trouble with the less reputable men. When Roger returned he was livid to find that the books of "The Metro" had been cooked! Jerry asked Roger to keep quiet about the cooked books and Roger did so. Jerry told him that Roger's rival, Mike Bauer, was having Jerry investigated for Jerry's gambling activities.

Roger and Peggy married in February, with only Adam Thorpe and Bert Bauer in attendance. Months later Adam would finally learn of Roger and Holly's affair and the fact that Chrissy was Roger's child. Adam confronted Roger and refused to forgive him until Peggy convinced him otherwise. She stated that she had forgiven Roger as well and that he would need Adam's respect and love for him. So Adam decided to give Roger another chance. As for Barbara, she refused to forgive Roger and blamed him for all the problems in Holly's life, especially because Ed had left her. Later, that fall, the case of the Granger family vs. Rita Stapleton would lead to Roger's ruin. Rita found herself on trial for the murder of her former patient, Cyrus Granger, who died in Texas the previous year. However, unbeknownst to everyone, Roger had a past with Rita, a past, he coerced her into keeping secret. The cost of that secret could have been Rita's freedom since on the night in question she was making love to Roger. Under stress about the Rita situation, Roger suddenly started verbally abusing Peggy. Meanwhile, Roger would find himself in the line of fire because of Jerry's huge gambling debts. Although Jerry's brother, Ben, helped bail him out, the payments were not enough, and, in January 1977, the people who Jerry owed money beat him and Roger up! Soon after, Jerry left town, yet Roger remained brutal to Peggy. Meanwhile, Mike, who was Rita's lawyer, went to Texas to investigate and he learned about Roger and Rita's affair after he recognized Roger in a photo. But since Rita refused to talk about it, Mike confronted Roger in Peggy's house (with Billy almost hearing everything) and forced him to confess the truth in court. At this moment, Peggy and Ed arrived and heard everything. Unnerved that Roger waited so long to reveal the truth, Peggy decided that he wasn't trustworthy and divorced him. A sad Roger then left Springfield again and Peggy and Billy did the same a few months later.

In July 1978, Roger returned to Springfield, got a job at Spaulding Enterprises and began dating Hillary Bauer, Ed's sister. Hillary decided to end her affair with Roger since she realized that he had unresolved feelings for Holly. In the meantime, Roger was becoming increasingly bitter over not being able to have any more children, and resented all the time Chrissy spent with Ed. Roger's resentment of Ed consumed his every thought and he tried to get even by sleeping with Rita. When Rita refused to sleep with Roger, his anger exploded and he raped her! Afraid of losing Ed, Rita told no one about the rape. Meanwhile, one night in November, shortly after Thanksgiving, Roger was struck by a car!. Although Roger was not seriously injured, he let many people believe that he was. Roger, manipulating Hillary and Katie Parker into letting him stay at their apartment, launched his own illegal investigation into the hit and run. Although he suspected the true culprit may have been the disgruntled Spaulding employee Whitney Foxton, who was fired when Roger was hired, he discovered the true culprit was actually Dean. Meanwhile, Roger realized that the best way to form a relationship with his daughter was to marry Holly. So Roger convinced Holly to marry him in January 1979 with only Sara McIntyre and Adam present. Very soon after, Roger found out through Holly where Dean and Sara had gone on their second honeymoon, so he broke into their hotel suite hoping to gain leverage on his business rival, Dean. In the safe, Roger found papers that proved that Alan paid Ramon de Villar to claim that he and Alan's wife, Elizabeth, were having and affair as well as papers that proved that Alan's son, Phillip, was not his.

Meanwhile, it didn't take long for Holly to suspect that Roger was having an affair with someone. Roger set it up so that Holly would believe that the affair was with Diane to protect Hillary. But after Holly confronted him about the affair, Roger denied having an affair with Diane or anyone else. When Hillary learned from Barbara of Roger and Holly's marriage, she angrily confronted Roger and left him. Meanwhile, Holly grew disenchanted with Roger after she realized his true motives for the marriage and after she found his gun in the house (which he had bought after the car accident for his own protection) she demanded that he remove it from the house, so Roger brought the gun to his office at Spaulding. When Holly still neglected to tell Chrissy that Roger was her real father and refused to sleep with him, Roger, convinced that she was still in love with Ed and feeling disgraced as a man, brutally raped his wife in March. But unlike Rita, Holly went to Ed with the truth and with Mike's help pressed charges of marital rape. To keep his job, Roger then blackmailed Alan with the stolen affidavits into hiring him an attorney. Alan compiled and hired Ross Marler as his lawyer. In June, Rita finally told Ed about her rape, Ed stormed off and went to Roger's office, to confront him and the two men began fighting. Suddenly, Holly arrived at the office and seeing Roger beating on Ed, she grabbed the gun (that Roger got for protection after being run down) from Roger's desk aimed it at Roger and demanded that the men stop! Though Ed tried to talk a shaken Holly into giving up the gun, Roger went toward her to grab the gun and that's when Holly fired and shot him point blank three times!

Near death, Roger was sent to a private clinic in Puerto Rico where Dr. Gonzalo Moreno declared him dead when Adam arrived. In the aftermath, Holly was sent to jail for murder and Chrissy spent much of her time with Ed and Rita. Though everyone thought that Roger was gone forever, he was actually very much alive. Having blackmailed Alan into faking his death with a stolen corpse and helping him escape from the police, Roger had been treated by Dr. Moreno in St. Lucia and was now living in Paris. In Paris, he met plastic surgeon Renee Dubois, whom he seduced and charmed into giving him plastic surgery so that he could return to get his daughter. Though he painted himself as a victim, Renee was wary and only made minor changes in Roger's appearance. But she was touched by Roger's claim that he missed Chrissy and she made plans to marry Roger and to help him raise Chrissy. However, since Roger's body suddenly disappeared, many in Springfield were suspecting that Roger was still alive. In February 1980, Roger returned to Springfield and hid out at the Reardon Boarding house, disguised with a beard as an old European Professor named Schneider. He then decided to make his move at the Cedars winter carnival. Disguised as a clown, Roger's plan was to abduct Chrissy, however, the plan was foiled when his voice was recognized by Rita! Hearing her say his name, Roger realized that Rita knew that the clown was actually him. Rita, after trying to get Ed's attention, to escape Roger's clutches ran into the disco hall of mirrors where Roger followed her. Unfortunately, for Rita, Roger caught hold of her and dragged her out! He then forced forced Rita to drive them both up to the deserted cabin at Indian Lake, with a pregnant Rita begging Roger to release her.

Later, Roger confronted Renee in her hotel room. During the altercation, Renee bolted in fear yelling out Roger's name and fell down a stairwell to her death. Now knowing that Roger was definitely back in town, the Bauers spirited Holly and Chrissy away to Santo Domingo with Peter Chapman. Later that week though Rita went into premature labor. Fortunately, Roger loosened the bounds on Rita's wrists and hands and helped calm her down and prevented Rita from continuing into labor. Meanwhile, Ed, Mike and Lt. Wyatt , with the help of Rita's scarf and some witnesses up at Indian Lake, located the cabin. Then they went to go and rescue Rita. Unfortunately, when Ed and Mike (against Lt. Wyatt's wishes) were approaching the cabin, Roger got nervous when Rita started to scream and bolted through the back door. In the process he knocked over a lit kerosene lamp that started to set the cabin ablaze with Rita still tied to the bed. Ed reached Rita in time and both he and Mike got her out of the cabin, but unfortunately Rita had suffered from smoke inhalation and lost her baby at Cedars. Afterwards, Roger finally discovered, through a bug at Ed's house, Holly and Chrissy's whereabouts and traveled to Santo Domingo to get his daughter. The attempt failed however and Roger ended up chasing Holly through the jungle of the Island of Lost Souls. Though he did catch up with her, so did Ed and Mike. Ed was shot+ in the arm by Roger. While Roger struggled with Mike, Ed shot Roger and after a vicious struggle, Roger slipped over a cliff and although he tried to save his nemesis, Ed couldn't and Roger seemingly fell to his death.

In January 1989, Alexandra Spaulding and Fletcher Reade went down with their plane on a Caribbean island. After a storm, Fletcher was rescued and agent Adam Malik and his partner rescued an unconscious Alex and brought her to their base. Adam took care of Alex but he held her so that she couldn't escape. Adam wore a mask and claimed that his face was disfigured. Adam was actually Roger himself! Roger had survived the fall of the cliff fifteen years ago and was rescued by the CIA. In exchange for the CIA's help, Roger agreed to be trained as a top spy by his supervisor Vaughn. Roger then travelled through the Middle East and West European and he mostly lived in Switzerland where Holly and Chrissy lived as well. Roger kept his distance from them and after killing a double agent in Berlin, he was sent to the Caribbean. Now Fletcher, Phillip Spualding and Blake (Chrissy) arrived to rescue Alex and after the group left after a few days, Adam lagged behind, but after his island paradise was destroyed by the army who invaded it looking for him, Adam secretly ran away to Springfield. An elated Alex hid Adam in the Spaulding wine cellar when he showed up and Adam befriended Blake. When Alan spotted Adam, he immediately recognized who the man behind the mask was and Adam not only realized that Alan was lying about being paralyzed but also that Alan was setting up a series of "accidents" to scheme against Blake and to make it look it like Roger's doing. Fortunately for Adam, no one believed Alan's claim that Roger was alive and back in town. The climax of this situation occurred at Blake and Philip's wedding where Alan approached a still masked Roger with a gun and told him that he had to reveal himself to the crowd otherwise a bomb would go off killing everyone in the church. Roger lunged at Alan and as the two struggled, the gun went off, hitting Philip in mid vow. Roger grabbed onto a vine and as he was swinging into the sanctuary below, was shot by Alan. To everyone's shock, especially Holly's, Adam was unmasked as Roger! Thanks to Alan, everyone now believed that the bloody wedding was Roger's fault. Holly told Ed to kill Roger, and while Ed did entertain the notion of letting Roger die on his operating table, he went ahead with the surgery.

Later, as Roger was recuperating, Holly sneaked into his room and attempted to smother him with a pillow. Roger sat up, but didn't tell the security what Holly had tried to do. As Roger was about to be transferred to a maximum security facility, he escaped, bent on proving Alan's guilt. Blake tracked Roger down and they had a brief father-daughter interlude before Ed called the police. It was at this point the truth about Roger was revealed: he was a CIA agent for the US government, having been recruited by the men who found him at the bottom of the cliff. Wanting to help his daughter, Philip and Roger cooked up a scheme to expose Alan. One night, Roger walked into the Spaulding Mansion and proceeded to "shoot" both Alan-Michael and Philip. A determined Alan jumped from his wheelchair and tried to stop Roger, but his jumping up was enough to prove he had set up the accidents and shot Philip. Alan was sentenced to jail time but he told Phillip that his ex-fiancée, Beth Raines, was still alive. Though Alan was in jail, Roger was a free man since he had been exonerated from his crimes because of his government service. Meanwhile, Alan plotted to get out of jail and came up with an elaborate plot to extort $1 million from Philip. When Bruce Daly showed Alan a picture of Dana Jones, Alan also saw the same thing as Rick Bauer saw: how much Dana looked like Beth Raines. Alan decided to hire Bruce and by extension, Dana, to do a setup of Phillip. Alan had the sleazy Bruce send Phillip anonymous ransom notes demanding a million dollars for Beth's release. Phillip convinced his younger brother and Alan's legitimate son, Alan-Michael Spaulding to give up his inheritance to pay the ransom. Roger though, supposedly concerned about Blake, found out a startlingly secret about Beth Raines' body-- Beth's body wasn't buried in her gravesite! Roger told Holly this, but asked her to keep the secret for their daughter and Blake's marriage to Phillip's sake.

Later, Roger found out about Alan's scheme and decided to use Bruce, himself. The original plan of Alan's was for Bruce to bring Dana Jones along with him at a drop off point at Stoney Lake and meet Phillip and Rick there. Then Phillip would hand Bruce the $1 million dollars and Bruce and Alan would share the money as a way for Alan to get out of prison. But, Bruce started to become convinced that Alan wasn't going to live up to his end of the deal and share the $1 million dollars so when Roger offered to pay Bruce to pretend to be an F.B.I. agent and get a hold of the $1 million dollars instead, Bruce agreed. The only thing Bruce had to do, after being paid off by Roger, in this new scenario of Roger's is to leave Springfield for good. Later, at the drop off point, Rick Buaer was shocked when the woman who Phillip thought would be the very much alive, Beth Raines turned out to be none other than, Dana Jones! Bruce had apparently convinced (or coerced) Dana to go along with the scam and Phillip really did believe that Dana was Beth! Rick tried to get his best friend to see that Dana wasn't Beth, but Phillip refused to listen and went ahead and left the money for Bruce Daly; who when Rick caught up with him at Stoney Lake showed the fake credentials that Roger made him that showed he was an F.B.I. agent! Bruce then gave the money to Roger! Bruce Daly did get out of town, but a little later when Phillip found out from Alan in prison that Daly was working for him, Phillip caught up with Daly in Chicago and Daly confessed to his role in assisting Alan in the scam, but did not implicate Alan directly. Daly also did not tell Phillip where the money went, thus keeping Roger from being implicated as well. Then Daly left Chicago for good. Of course Phillip was left with a huge mystery on his hand and still convinced that Beth was still alive. Later, Roger embarked upon a development scheme along Springfield's waterfront. He planned to erect a huge skyscraper and name it after Blake. The land included 5th Street but when the occupants refused to sell their property,

in 1990, Roger hired a thug named Scully to scare the people. Unfortunately, Scully went too far without Roger's agreement by tying Harley up and setting fire to her store. The fire killed Pops Cooper and many occupants lost their property, which included Ruth Price. Roger's next move towards redemption or at least towards acquisition of power came when he convinced an absent Alexandra to return. Roger eventually seduced Alex in January when they went to Saudi-Arabia and cut out Lewis Oil by making a big business deal with Shiek Al Radi. While having an affair with Alex, Roger set up a series of bogus poker games with powerful Spaulding exec Henry Chamberlain. When Henry lost, he handed over all his stock as collateral until he could pay off the debt, but Roger held on to the stock even after Henry got the cash. As a result, Henry almost committed suicide. Concerned about being linked to the lethal fire, Roger arranged a meeting with Scully, bringing a gun. Fletcher, who had become jealous of Roger's relationship with Alex caught the two together and tried to get Scully to implicate Roger. Scully got nervous and pulled a gun on Fletcher. Roger "saved" the day by shooting Scully. Before dying, Scully confessed to setting the fire but didn't say he was working for Roger. Soon afterward, Roger and Alex arranged a marriage with an intricate prenuptial arrangement hinging upon Roger not being unfaithful, should he cheat, he would lose everything.

After the marriage, Alex made Roger the President of Spaulding and he also owned 50% of WSPR. Meanwhile, under Roger's instructions and with help of Spaulding's architect Neil Everest, Spaulding began to built the Waterview Towers (earlier it was named Blakewood Towers after Blake) at Roger's land. Unfortunately, the Spauldings had leased the land 100 years ago and now it should be returned to its legal owner, Ruth Price. Since Ruth had a heart problem and knew that she would die, she intended to give the deed to Billy Lewis and she threatened Roger with it. One evening, Roger wanted to talk with Ruth about the land and Ruth suffered a heart attack. Roger then stole the lease and had Ruth moved from Cedars to his apartment where she later died under the care of a doctor whom Roger had paid. After Ruth's death, Roger secretly brought Ruth back to Cedars. Then one night, a mentally unstable Reva Shayne Lewis flirted with and Roger took nude photos of her with the intention of blackmailing Billy. Too bad Reva got the lease Roger had stolen from Ruth. Finally, the night the Waterview Towers was about to open to the public, Billy and Vanessa got Roger distracted and he wound up burning the Reva photos instead of the lease. Billy then produced the lease and kicked Roger out of the building he had erected. An infuriated Alex began to question her wisdom in marrying Roger and threw him out of her house until further notice. At this point Roger gave in to his desire and he seduced Mindy Lewis who was earlier asked by Billy to spy on Roger. Meanwhile, Alex wanted to test Roger's loyalty and she approached Holly with a plan for Holly to seduce Roger. So she arranged for him and Holly to go to Acapulco together on a "business" trip and a bodyguard would follow them. Unfortunately for Holly, the bodyguard suffered a fatal heart-attack. In their hotel room, Roger and Holly came to a tearful truce and Holly realized that he was a changed man since he regretted the rape years ago.

Stunned by the new situation, Holly came to a forgiveness of sorts and the two actually had a good time in each other's company until Alex and Holly's fiancé Ross rained on their parade. Alex was thrilled Roger had passed her test, but a spiteful Ross told Roger of the plot. Roger was hurt by Holly and enraged at Alex, so he wanted a divorce from Alex but she refused. Alex was determined to make her marriage work. However, Roger wanted nothing to do with her and he wanted to marry Mindy. The question was how to leave Alex without giving up all the money he had tied up in their marriage. In 1991, he called in an old CIA pal, John Davis and the two began embezzling millions from Spaulding. Roger created false benefit organizations and the money went to an account in Switzerland. As part of their scheme, Roger had Davis con an old farmer named Peter Jessup out of his land. But Jessup suffered a heart attack after learning that he had been scammed, leaving his grandson, Hart, devastated. Meanwhile, Roger began doing business with New York Mafia man Marco Vizzini and agreed to help Vizzini find his enemy Tony Camaletti (who was going by the name AC Mallet) At the same time, Roger promised Mindy that he would end his ill fated marriage to Alex and would raise their child. Meanwhile Alex found an earring under her bed and after sleuthing, realized Roger was cheating on her and that Mindy was his mistress. Just as Alex was about to confront Mindy, Mindy doubled over in pain and began to miscarry her and Roger's child. When Roger heard this he set out for the hospital, but was stopped cold in his tracks when Hart announced that he was Roger's son. Hart had found a letter from his mother that told of his paternity. A stunned Roger forgot about Mindy and left her high and dry at the hospital. As a result, Mindy broke up with Roger.

Now Alex enlisted the help of Henry, Fletcher, Alan-Michael, and Detective AC Mallet to bring Roger down and find out where he had stashed the stolen money. Alex and crew realized that Davis was the key to nailing Roger so they set out to get him to crack after Mallet caught him illegally transferring funds out of Spaulding. Cornered, Roger turned to mobster Marco Vizzini and sold Mallet's true identity out. In return, Vizzini got a man inside the jail to intimidate Davis. Mallet got beaten to pulp by Vizzini and his thugs and also lost the woman he loved.. Mallet vowed to get even with Roger for ruining his life, meanwhile Alex was discouraged by Davis's refusal to implicate her cheating husband. Accepting that she wasn't going to put Roger behind bars, Alex gathered all of Roger's immense fan club to the country club and publicly berated him for being a gold digging social climber. She also intimated he was behind the embezzlement. Roger was forced to give up all his power except WSPR (the local TV station Roger co owned with Holly, but had never really had much time to do anything with). Alex also kept the Jessup files, hoping to one day blackmail Roger, knowing that Hart could never know it was his own father who was responsible for killing his grandfather.

Without his power, Roger returned his focus on to Holly and running WSPR. He was jealous of Holly's new romance with neurosurgeon Daniel St. John and after Daniel stopped Roger's plan to buy Ross's 25% half of WSPR (Ross was about to become D.A. again) by loaning Holly the money through Ed so that she would buy Ross's half, Roger wanted revenge on Daniel. Sensing something was Daniel's past, Roger followed a lead to Jean Weatherill in Boston. Jean was convinced that Daniel had years before murdered her sister in a car accident and was eager to get even with Daniel. Roger brought her to town with the intention of breaking Holly and Daniel up. However, Jean was quite irrational and even Roger couldn't control her or her fierce desire to hurt Daniel. At one point she came to a party for Daniel at the Country Club drunk and threatened to kill Holly, feeling she was the key to Daniel. Roger threatened her back, but was very surprised when Jean was found floating face down in the country club pool, murdered! Meanwhile, Alex was livid to learn that Nick McHenry (who she was sure was her son) was sleeping with Mindy, so she publicly exposed Mindy and Roger's affair in the Blue Moon. Stunned, Billy beat Roger to a bloody pulp and would have choked him to death if it weren't for Hampton Speakes's intervention. Only Holly helped Roger and as he was recovering in Cedars, Ross and Mallet teamed up to prove Roger was the one who had murdered Jean. Roger insisted in his innocence and pointed the finger at Daniel. Roger tried to convince Holly that Daniel was the culprit but Holly continually refused to listen to him. Finally, to Roger's horror, Holly even agreed to marry Daniel. With Ross and Mallet ready to put him in the slammer, Roger, with the help of his ambitious protégé Gilly Grant at WSPR, concocted a plan to prove to Holly how dangerous Daniel was. Daniel did crack when he attacked Roger right in front of Holly, but when Holly realized that Roger was the one who had set the whole thing up, she angrily rejected Roger and eloped with Daniel!

Fearing for Holly's life, Roger set out to find where her and Daniel had gone, but Blake first had to help him elude Mallet and the police. Soon after Roger got away, Ross received evidence (a bloodstained plaque) that proved that Daniel indeed was the killer. Meanwhile at Ed's cabin, Holly began having second thoughts about becoming Mrs. Daniel St. John and when Daniel realized she wasn't going to marry him, he confessed to the murder and pulled a gun on Holly, intending to marry her at gunpoint. Roger and Ross both arrived at the cabin and Roger slipped inside disguised as a priest, armed with a pistol. Daniel caught on though and forced Holly to tie Roger up so he could be their witness. As the real priest began the ceremony, Roger used a pocketknife to cut free of the ropes. Outside, Ross cut the power to the cabin, and Roger used the darkness as he jumped Daniel. The two struggled and the gun went off. However, Holly inadvertently distracted Roger and Daniel grabbed her. When Daniel decided to kill Holly, Ross distracted him and Roger shot and killed Daniel. At first Holly was grateful to Roger for rescuing her, but when Ross told her that Roger had set the series of events in motion, she again turned away from him. Smarting from Holly's rejection, Roger was shocked when Alex came to him with a proposal that he break up newly engaged Nick and Mindy. At first Roger refused to help, but the combination of getting most of his money back and the Jessup farm files (which Hart still had not yet seen), convinced him. Roger began to cozy back up to Mindy and even partially befriended Nick. Mindy soon confided in Roger that Nick was Alex's son and that she altered the DNA tests that proved it. Roger held the trump card and then proceeded to go to civil war torn European nation Cambrai to find Nick's former lover, Eve Guthrie. Roger brought Eve to Springfield under the guise of conducting an interview. He then arranged for Nick and Eve to meet right in front of Mindy.

Later, Roger arranged for Nick to be kidnapped in Cambrai so that he would miss his wedding. Devastated, Mindy left Springfield not knowing Roger and Alex were behind her woes. As Roger and Alex celebrated their destruction of Nick and Mindy's wedding, jewel thief Jenna Bradshaw robbed the Spaulding mansion and stole the Jessup farm file that Alex was preparing to finally return to Roger. The file wound up in Ross's office where a devastated Hart read it. He confronted Roger, and though Roger beat around the bush, he came clean that he had been the one who had hired Davis and stolen Peter Jessup's farm. Hart turned on Roger and left Springfield. Hurt that Hart was now gone, Roger returned his fatherly love to Blake and planned to build a media empire that he would hand to her. The only thing standing in his way was Ross who was now running for a senate seat against the incumbent, Leo Flynn. Ross refused to give Roger the zoning Roger needed to build a new skyscraper next to Billy's Towers. Roger was also wamted to ruin Ross because he had allowed Hart to see the files. Roger tried to get Blake to dig up any dirt she could Ross, not knowing his daughter was sleeping with Ross and had fallen in love with him. When Gilly left provocative photos of Blake and Ross on Roger's desk, he exploded. He threatened to kill Ross and disowned Blake. However, Blake tried to win back Roger's love. Not wanting to completely alienate her, Roger devised a test of loyalty for Blake. He left phony documents in Flynn's office, set up a video camera and waited to see if Blake would break in order to help Ross win the election. Much to Roger's dismay, she did. After winning the senate seat Ross was confronted by Roger who showed him the video. Roger gave Ross two options: step down from the Senate seat and prosecute Blake or be his stooge in Washington. Ross called Roger's bluff and convinced Roger that he would prosecute Blake. Not wanting Blake to really go to jail, Roger destroyed the videotape, but Ross did step down from the Senate seat.

At this time, Roger helped Jenna Bradshaw to get out of jail and he seduced her. He liked her feminine wiles, but liked her even more when Henry claimed to be her father. However, something didn't seem right to Roger and after some investigation, he found out Henry really wasn't Jenna's dad, but that Spaulding had stolen Jenna's real dad's invention and made a fortune off it. Roger told Jenna, who at first refused to believe Roger's claim. However, Henry did tell the truth and a hurt Jenna became Roger's pawn to reclaim Spaulding. With Alex out of town and Alan-Michael losing one of only two documents that proved Jenna's claim to Spaulding was indeed fraudulent (Jenna's dad had actually signed his invention over), Jenna won her lawsuit and the pair moved into the Spaulding mansion. Meanwhile Hart returned to town and Roger went to see Hart to mend their relationship, but a still bitter Hart would have nothing to do with his father. Instead of turning to Jenna, Roger turned to Holly for comfort. This made Jenna jealous. Meanwhile, Billy offered Hart a construction job at Lewis Oil, and of course, Roger perceived this as a threat. With Buzz Cooper's help, Roger found evidence that H.B. Lewis had spent time in prison. Roger blackmailed Gilly into exposing H.B. at a banquet being held in his honor. The plan worked, H.B. was humiliated. Meanwhile, Davis got released from prison and immediately went to Roger to collect the money Roger had promised him for taking the fall in the Spaulding embezzlement/ Jessup land scam. But Roger refused to pay Davis which made Davis angrier than ever. After Jenna finally tired of Roger's growing relationship with Holly, threw him out of the Spaulding mansion, Roger followed Holly to a cliff house where Holly and Michelle were staying. Davis tailed Roger and after sabotaging Roger's engine, took Holly hostage in return for the money Roger owed him. Ed came to the cliff house and together he and Roger concocted a plan to lure Davis outside and jump him. When Davis appeared outside, Ed jumped him. Roger punched a disoriented Davis, who went over the side of the cliff to his death and then had to grab Ed who was dangling perilously over the edge himself. In much the same way Ed had tried to save Roger all those years before in Santo Domingo, Roger now saved Ed. After Ed and Michelle left, Roger and Holly impulsively made love for the first time since the rape.

The next morning a tender Roger asked Holly to marry him, promising that everything would be different in his life if he could only have her back in it. Holly refused, saying she couldn't take the roller coaster ride Roger represented. Blaming Ed, Roger stormed off. At a hero's party for Ed, a drunk Roger arrived and after pleading with Holly again, told Ed that he and Holly had slept together. An enraged Ed lunged at Roger and sent him sprawling to the ground right at Jenna's feet. Jenna took pity on Roger and brought him back to the Spaulding mansion where the two made love. The next morning, Roger disappeared, but resurfaced a few days later in Holly's house. After Holly rejected him, he immediately went to Jenna and proposed. Jenna accepted and despite Hart's efforts to stop the wedding, it went off, aired live over WSPR for all of Springfield to see. Meanwhile, Alexandra came back and was shocked to find them in her bed! She vowed vengeance and to reclaim the Spaulding throne. Soon a pregnant Jenna grew tired of Roger and told him she wanted a divorce. Roger coldly threatened her and told her she would never be rid of him and keep his child from him. Roger then went to the Country Club where all the Spauldings and Lewises were gathered to celebrate Nick and Mindy's reengagement. Roger came in and engaged in a vicious war of words with Alex, catching Mindy in the cross fire. Roger was soon the most hated man in town and was later stalked and shot in the Country Club. Everyone thought Roger was dead this time, but in reality, Roger was hiding in Holly's basement with the bullet still embedded in his shoulder! While Holly was away, Roger sneaked out of the basement and skulked around town, listening in at different people's doorways, trying to gain a handle on the identity of the person who shot him. It was during this time Roger realized that Spaulding had been returned to its rightful owners and that the police were searching for him to arrest him on fraud charges in connection to the takeover. On Christmas, Roger, not having anyone else to turn to, revealed himself to Holly. At the sight of a wounded and feverish Roger, Holly called Ed to treat him. Ed did give Roger medication, but fearing that Ed would call the police (which he did), Roger fled from Holly's.

In January 1994, Roger confronted Jenna and vowed to take their child from her after she gave birth. Frightened Jenna pulled a gun on him and threatened to shoot him again! However, she couldn't pull the trigger and after Buzz came in on them, Jenna doubled over in pain. Buzz called the paramedics and Roger was on the run again. He kept into a car being driven by Tangie Hill and at gunpoint forced her to take him to safety. The two engaged in a strange conversation that revealed they had known each other well before. Tangie left and Roger called the hospital only to discover Jenna had miscarried their child. Devastated, Roger left his hiding place and nearly ran into Billy and Nick. There, he overheard Billy tell Nick that Peter was HIS grandson. Immediately, Roger came up with a new plan to wrest Peter away from Billy. Roger broke into Billy's house, stole his gun, fired a bullet and picked it up. Then he caught Billy in a shed taking a drink and vowed to get Peter. A drunk Billy lunged at him but fell down. Roger returned to Hart's farm and convinced Bridget to find Holly but Eve Guthrie followed. At gunpoint, Roger forced Eve to remove the bullet from his shoulder without anesthetic. Then as Holly and Eve went outside, Roger switched bullets, rubbing his blood from the real bullet onto the one he taken from Billy's gun so he could frame Billy and get Peter. Billy was arrested and attacked Roger in the middle of the headquarters but was pulled away. To the surprise of everyone in Springfield, Roger hadn't needed to frame Billy, because Billy confessed to shooting Roger on his own. Roger got off on the fraud charges after cutting a deal with the Spaulding family and then divorced Jenna.

As Roger and Holly continued to renew their decades old romance, Roger focused his attention on reclaiming Peter in Hart's name (Hart still had yet to find out that Peter was his son). Roger began manipulating Bridget to bring a custody suit against Vanessa and then tried to locate Hart. However, Hart managed to elude Roger's pursuit. After many attempts to get Peter away from Vanessa, Bridget and she came to a resolution where they would both raise him and allow Roger visitation rights. Though not exactly what he wanted, for once Roger let up and then found a new situation to focus on. Not long after, Roger made contact with a mysterious businessman named Tashiwa who wanted to enlist Roger's help in taking over Spaulding Enterprises. Tashiwa never revealed himself to Roger and got Roger to meet him in strange places like WSPR after hours and at the reptile house at the zoo. Roger was asked to gain Alexandra's trust and he indeed made inroads after "saving" Alex from a poisonous snake that he had planted near her. Soon, Roger began wondering who the mysterious Tashiwa was and then Holly supplied the vital piece of information: Tashiwa was really Alan who had been let out of jail and was trying to reclaim Spaulding while getting even with Roger for helping put him in jail 5 years before. At a tension filled meeting on the roof of the Towers, Roger exposed Alan. Then the bitter rival made a deal: Roger would get close to Alex and use his powers of persuasion to get Alan back into the company and in turn, Alan would give Roger a powerful position in his old stomping ground.

Meanwhile, Holly grew tired of Roger's fierce desire to gain control of Spaulding again and nearly broke up with him. However, Roger promised to marry her as soon as he got what he needed to secure their future. He nearly seduced Alex who, amazingly was succumbing to his charms. However, as soon as Alan had what he wanted, he sold Roger out and told Alex that she had again manipulated her ex husband. Livid Alex set it up to look like Roger had slept with her the night he was to propose to Holly. Devastated when she learned from Alex that she and Roger made love, Holly had a one-night stand with Fletcher and later broke up with Roger. Roger, not realizing what had happened crashed Ed's Christmas party to talk to Holly but was literally dragged out by three people. Roger confronted Alan on New Year's Eve. He handcuffed Alan to the furniture and then threatened him with a syringe full of deadly medication. Fearing that Roger was going to kill him, Alan promised to get Alexandra to admit that Roger had been faithful to Holly. Begrudgingly, Alan did so in January 1995, and Holly was shocked that Roger had honored her, however, she was beginning to have serious feelings for Fletcher. Holly went back to Roger, but Roger immediately knew she had been unfaithful. Jealous, he finally discovered it was ed. Angered that Roger hadn't trusted her about Fletcher, Holly broke up with him again and then took up with Fletcher. A lovelorn Roger tried a variety of tactics to get back into Holly's good graces, going so far as to stage a car accident and faking amnesia so Holly would take pity on him. However, none of it worked and Holly eventually married Fletcher with an uninvited Roger in attendance, though he did manage to behave.

Reeling from losing Holly, Roger returned to past form as a user and abuser of women, especially his new flame Dinah Marler. Hating Vanessa for having Peter and hating Ross for marrying Blake, Roger slept with Dinah. In an effort to get Roger away from their rebellious daughter, Ross and Vanessa used Roger's visitation rights for Peter as a weapon. Livid at their using Peter, Roger vowed to find Hart and tell him about Peter and then use him to get custody of Peter. Roger hired a bevy of private investigators to find Hart while he was busy marrying Dinah. Wondering why Roger was so hot to find him, Hart returned to town and overheard the truth about his parenthood before seeing his father. Blown away, Hart went to see his father, but quickly realized that Roger had been planning on using him. So Hart set out to finally get even with his old man for his past schemes. Meanwhile a strain in Roger's marriage to Dinah emerged when Roger framed Dinah's best friend Marcus Williams for a theft he didn't commit. In 1996, Hart got Dinah to sleep with him and then gleefully revealed the fact to an enraged Roger. Little did anyone realize that Roger had been busy embezzling all of Dinah's trust fund money, most of which had been given to her by Henry. Roger tried to patch things up with Dinah, while his lawyer and confidante Leo doctored his financial books to make it look like Roger had lost the money in a bad investment (it was actually stashed away in the Cayman islands).. When he was about to have to go to court to reveal what he had done with the money, Roger took some pills and faked a heart attack to dodge court. His ploy nearly worked, Dinah almost fell back into Roger's grasp, but Hart learned that his father had stolen Dinah's money and showed Dinah the proof. Already angry with Roger for his thievery, Dinah got worse when she was told Roger had faked his heart attack. She bought a gun and went into Roger's hospital room with the intention of plugging him. Luckily Hart dragged her off before she pulled the trigger. It was then they concocted a plan to make Roger believe he was losing his mind.

Dinah decided not to divorce Roger and then she and Hart did all kinds of things to make Roger question his mentally faculties. It was a slow process, but it began to drive Roger to the edge. Roger grew more and more violent, attacking Hart several times and choking Dinah with a scarf. He went so far as to start drugging Dinah with a psychoactive drug, Lonatrat that destroyed people's brains. He tried to convince Dinah (while she was under the drug's influence) to jump off the roof of their penthouse. Hart caught on to his father's malevolent plot and saved Dinah. Now, they both decided to kick their plan into high gear. Hart confronted Roger at Laurel Falls with a vial of Lonatrat and threatened to the police Roger had been trying to drive his wife insane in an effort to cover up the fact he robbed her blind ever since he had married her. A fearful Roger pulled a gun on Hart and the two struggled. The gun went off and Hart was shot. A despondent Roger, believing he had "murdered" his own son buried Hart. However, this was merely part of the clever plot against him, Hart wasn't dead, the bullet had been a blank and he had been wearing a blood pack. Now, Hart began popping up all over town to flare up Roger's guilty conscience (he showed up at WSPR, in a coffin, at a jail cell after Roger had been arrested for assaulting a police officer and in a hospital room). Roger's mental state dramatically declined and got worse after he accidentally drank an entire vial of the Lonatrat he had been poisoning Dinah with. The drug was pumped out of his system, but he was left strapped down to a hospital bed after he had tried to strangle Dinah. Finally, at a fair, Hart revealed himself to Roger in front of the entire town. A whacked out Roger couldn't believe his eyes and admitted to everyone that he had shot Hart. Suddenly after Dinah refused to corroborate Roger's story, he realized he'd been set up all along and attacked his son. It took two cops to subdue him and he was again strapped down to a bed to await a mental competency hearing the next day. Roger represented himself at the hearing, but after becoming violent on the stand, the judge ordered him placed into the Midland Hills psychiatric hospital.

Roger escaped and broke into Hart's apartment where he found a picture of Hart and Dinah together in the Caymans, disproving their claim they hated each other and validating his argument they had been in collusion all along. Hart found Roger, but Roger pinned his treacherous son to the wall and went to find the judge. Too bad, Bridget, fearing that Hart might go to jail, switched photos and when Roger showed it to the judge, it was really a picture of Peter. Roger was carted back off to the mental hospital. Roger attempted escape again, knocking out a doctor. But when he saw Dinah, he grabbed her and while tying her up, she broke free and set off a fire alarm, so his second escape failed. After that attempt, Dinah authorized the psychiatrists to give Roger "shock treatment" to cure him of violent impulses. Before the doctors could do so, Roger incited a riot and escaped again amongst the confusion. Unfortunately for Roger, he was again tracked down again and brought back to the hospital where they tried to give Roger shock treatment. They thought they had succeeded, especially when Roger awoke and suffered from amnesia. However, Roger had actually unhooked the machine before they gave him the treatment so he was still his good old kind self. At a second competency hearing, Hart and Dinah were discovered together and a "kind, benevolent" Roger was finally released from the loony bin without having to attack anyone else. Within a couple of weeks Roger decided to get back in his son's good graces, so he made some street thugs mad, got beat up and used Hart's sympathy to worm his way back into Hart's life. Dinah wasn't quite so trusting, so Roger set it up for her to get locked in a grain silo on the Jessup farm. She nearly suffocated as the silo filled up with grain, but just in time, Roger "rescued" her.

Next, Roger hired Dinah's ex Jean-Luc to come from France and to break up Dinah and Hart. At the same time, Roger came closer to Amanda Spaulding since they both had the same goal: power! While Alan was in the hospital, Amanda cemented her power at Spaulding Enterprises and named Roger VP of Advantage Systems, a fact that made Alan angry and he wanted to fight against Roger. At the same time, Roger reunited with Hart and promised him to finalize his divorce from Dinah ASAP. But he then told Leo the opposite and that he would hang up the divorce for as long as possible. Meanwhile, Jean-Luc didn't succeed to separate Dinah and Hart while Roger and Amanda had plans to take over Spaulding. On Christmas Eve, Amanda came in to Alan's bedroom with the document which she said gave her the power to replace him with Roger as her partner. Roger explained that there was a clause in Alan's agreement with Amanda that said if one of the partner's was incapacitated, he could be replaced. Unfortunately, Alan had the upper hand and had Amanda arrested for tax evasion. Luckily for Amanda, Roger blackmailed the agent into letting her go. On the plane back home, Amanda and Roger decided to deepen their alliance, so arriving home, they announced their engagement and to everyone's surprise, Alan seemed to be "happy" for them.

In January 1997, when the takeover of Advantage Systems by Spaulding was publicized, the Spauldings had no choice but to welcome Roger back at Spaulding since they would loose stock otherwise. But with Roger back at Spaulding, Spaulding's stock got higher. Later, Roger rocked the Spaulding's world when he discovered that Amanda wasn't Alan's daughter after all---she was his half-sister! After solidifying her new power, . Amanda set Spaulding's assets free and she also welcomed Alan back at Spaulding, a fact which disturbed Roger until Amanda agreed to marry him. Unfortunately, Roger was still in love with Holly and he confessed to her that he could never love Amanda as he loved her. In January 1998, Roger surprised Holly by telling her that he may be moving to California and suggested that if he did go west and she moved to Canada with Fletcher, they might never see each other again. Roger confessed his love for Holly and he gave her the ultimatum to choose him and he wouldn't marry Amanda. Though Holly also admitted her love for Roger, she declined a life with him and they said painful good-bye. Roger married Amanda and moved with Amanda to California, where they headed Spaulding's West Coast Division. In 1999, Hart died after being accidentally shot by Dinah and though Blake informed Roger by phone, Roger did not return to attend Hart's funeral.

In 2004, Alan learned that Amanda and Roger had separated. Later, that fall, Blake and Holly would receive shocking news---Roger was dead. A man named Sebastian Hulce arrived in town and informed them that Roger had died of a lingering illness and refused to tell them since he wanted them to remember him as the man he was. After presenting them with Roger's ashes and reading them a letter from Roger telling them how much he loved all of them, Sebastian shocked them again by revealing his connection to Roger--he was his son. Apparently the product of a long ago affair, Sebastian had no idea who his father was until Roger was sick. Dying and in pain, Roger apparently bonded with his son and told him all about his past in Springfield.

Roger Thorpe was one of the greatest villain's in Springfield's history; no one before or after has ever caused so much trouble. Hated by most, and loved by a mere few, Roger was able to twist people round his finger and used and manipulated those people for his own purposes. But he did care for the people he loved and who loved him. Due to his many crimes, many people wanted him dead, yet his death came abruptly and quietly. Despite the fact that he left town years ago, Roger Thorpe has never been forgotten.