He came to Springfield as a young man who was about to graduate from Business School. He was young, ambitious and determined to have the power and respect that he so desperately craved but felt he never got. For him, hard work was a fact of life since he couldn't go to College right away. Instead he had to work for a couple of years to earn enough money to pay his tuition and even then his start in the Business World was far from successful. He lived in Texas for awhile where he got involved in some ill-fated business schemes but with the help of his father Adam Thorpe, a kind and decent man and The Bauer Family, he would pay off his debts. Little idea did The Bauers know that Roger's involvement in their lives would set off repercussions that still exist to this day.
He got a job working as a manager of "The Metro" a popular Springfield hangout but he always had his eye on bigger things so when he was offered a job working for tyrannical Stanley Norris, he jumped at the offer, not realizing that there was a catch involved. He would have to date Stanley's insecure daughter Holly. Now Roger didn't want to do that since he loved another woman named Peggy Fletcher whose son Johnny he loved like his own but instead Roger sold himself to the devil which would be a repetitive process for the rest of the time he lived in Springfield. When Holly realized that Roger loved Peggy and not her, she was so devastated she ran out into the street. She was treated at Cedars hospital by Dr. Ed Bauer and although the two would eventually marry, it was more of a relationship where two people where on the rebound than in love. Holly was still obsessed with Roger while Ed was in the middle of a divorce from his first wife Leslie who was about to marry his big brother Mike, a respected Lawyer.
Nevertheless, the two lusted for one another so when Holly got pregnant, she tried to pass the child whom she named Christina Bauer, as Ed's child and her scheme went fine for awhile. However when Chrissy needed a blood transfusion, the cat was out of the bag and Roger realized that the baby was his. He and Holly finally got married but since they were the town pariahs, only Holly's mother Barbara and Adam attended the ceremony. Holly soon discovered that marriage to Roger was hell and in 1979 when he brutally raped her, she pressed charges against him and Roger hired Ross Marler to defend him (a decision that he would later regret in future years). Sadly enough, Roger would also rape Rita Stapleton, Ed Bauer's fiancee adn because of this brutal act, she lost her baby for which she never forgave Roger for. Then Roger kidnapped Holly and held her at gunpoint in the jungles of Santa Deminco.
Mike and Ed Bauer came to rescue Holly and when Roger fell off of the cliff, the whole town thought he was gone for good but as the saying goes "When something is too good to be true, it usually is." During the 1980's, The Thorpes were no longer part of the Springfield Canvas. Holly lived in Europe where she married Dieter Lindsey and ran a Daycare Center and was happy for awhile. Christina returned to Springfield under the name of Blake Lindsey and became a Public Relations Wizard working at Spaulding. She later would marry Phillip Spaulding, the favorite son of Alan. On their wedding day, a mysterious stranger crashed the ceremony who was none other than Roger Thorpe himself. His unexpected arrival shocked the people of the town and when Alan Spaulding tried unsuccessfully to kill him, he went to prison for five years. It seemed that when he fell of the cliff, he didn't die. Instead he had recupurated at Alan Spaulding's Clinic in Puerto Rico and became a top spy for the CIA whose superior was a woman named Laura Jessup.
He still craved power but still gained enemies but while Alan was in Prison, he charmed Alexandra Spaulidng, Alan's sister and the two got married but Roger only looked at her as the prize to Spaulding Enterprises which was something he wanted more than anything else. During a midlife crisis, he had an affair with Melinda "Mindy" Sue Lewis, daughter of Oilman Billy Lewis who along with his father HB, younger brother Joshua and sister Trish were becoming quite wealthy whose ties to the Spauldings could be Soaps answer to Capulets and Montagues as in Romeo & Juliet. Mindy got pregnant but would lose the baby, and when Billy and Alex found out what Roger had done, they were both furious but only one would act on impulse. After the two divorced a Jewel Thief with a British Accent named Jenna Bradshaw came to town claiming to be the rightful owner of Spaulding claiming that her father was robbed of his invention that made The Spauldings Millionaires.
Roger once again used his charm to win over Jenna and the two got married much to the disgust of the town, and together they were determined to rule Spaulding with an iron fist. However, when Jenna realized what a slimebucket her husband was and when she became pregnant with his child, she tried to blow him off but he scared her so badly that she miscarried. She divorced him, and fired him from Spaulding. Nevertheless he always managed to make a comeback and when Alex offered him 50% ownership of WSPR, the TV Station, he reluctantly agreed although he wouldn't make the same kind of money that he would make at Spaulding. He never really even had a home so he lived mostly in Hotel Apartments. He and Holly became co-owners and sparks flew even though she was now involved with Ross Marler after a disastrous relationship with Dr. Daniel St. John.
Yet if there was one person who was the thorn in Roger's side it was always Ed Bauer. From the time they were young men, the two had this very hostile relationship with one another. Roger looked at Ed as a rival for Holly's affections while Ed looked at Roger as a hostile vicious man and whenever the two fought, it was almost always over Holly. This was never more obvious than in 1993, when Roger crashed a intimate get-together for Ed at The Country Club where he demanded to know why Holly was up in Ed's face even though she had slept with him not to long ago making him believe that they had a chance. When Roger aired his and Holly's dirty laundry, Ed got so angry that he decked Roger outside.
Nevertheless, Holly ruined any chance of winning back Ed and although their relationship had it's ups and downs, the biggest irony was that they were closer as friends than they ever were as a married couple. He managed to reluctantly accept Blake's relationship with Ross but then a young man came to Springfield that Roger never met. His name was Harton Jessup whom everyone called Hart for short who was the grandson of a Rancher. His mother Laura was in the Agency but what Roger didn't know was that in sharing their love, they produced a son. Although the relationship was quite rocky at first, the two grew to love one another very much. Hart in his own way very much became his father's son in the sense that he too would have complicated relationships with women.
When he had a one night stand with Bridget Reardon, the new manager/owner of Company, the town's Restaurant/Boardinghouse, he didn't realize that she was pregnant with his child. He had a terrible falling out with his father so he ran away to Canada not realizing he was about to become a father. The child who was named Peter had his identity hidden for a year until the truth came out. He was Hart's which meant that her was also Roger's Grandchild. Roger was thrilled to have a little hier to mold into his own image but it also resulted in a nasty custody battle between Bridget and Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis who along with her husband Billy adopted the child not realizing that his adoption was invalid. Billy was so upset over Roger's threat to take the child away from him and Vanessa that he shot him in a drunken rage but since Roger was despised alot of people were prime susspects. Billy was sent to prison for five years just like Alan but for Peter's sake everyone worked out an agreement that Bridget and Vanessa would raise the boy together and Roger would have visitation rights.
He would go on to be a devoted grandfather but he still wanted two things: Spaulding and Holly so when Alan Spaulding was released from Prison, he pretended to be a Mr. Tashiwa from Tokyo, Japan but when Roger discovered that he was the only one that knew that Alan was released earlier than expected, he used it to his advantage. He made Alex believe that he was on her side to bring Alan down and vice versa but when Alex realized she once again had been used, she decided not to get mad but even. She made it look like she and Roger made love when they didn't but it was enough for Holly to say that she was fed up and finished with him once and for all. She eventually realized the truth but it was too late, she was dating Fletcher Reade the co-owner of The Journal. The Springfield Newspaper.
On the day Holly and Fletcher married one another at The Bauer Home, Roger crashed and although he talked a big game, he was devastated and crushed beyond belief but he still maintained a brave aura. He started sleeping with Dinah Marler, the daughter of Ross & Vanessa and married her so that he could cover his insermountable debts but most of all, to save his station. Hart returned and the two forged a relationship once again and when most of Springfield was diagnosed with Food Poisoning during Matt Reardon's and Vanessa's Wedding Reception, Roger, Fletcher and Marcus Williams, who played at the reception shared a room, but when Fletcher called his new "wife" Holly to say hello, the look on Roger's face said it all, he loved her now more than ever.
The months went on and then after he and Dinah divorced, he discovered that Vanessa was hiding away in Switzerland to recuperate from a "DAYTIME ILLNESS". She managed to win his silence when she told him about some files that could affect the power structure at Spaulding. He charmed Amanda Spaulding, Alan's long-lost daughter and managed to get her out of prison on Xmas day when she got arrested for being THE MALIBU MADAM. So out of gratefulness, she got him a job, they started dating and would eventually leave Springfield to start a new life in Malibu, CA. where they run the West Coast Spaulding Division. Since he's been gone, life in Springfield has become quite different. I miss him very much.
Last updated 9/12/99. E-mail me with any comments or suggestions at addip@isholf.is.