The Life And Times (And Schemes!) Of Days Of Our Lives’s Stefano

On January 18, 1982, the late Joseph Mascolo made his Days of Our Lives debut as Stefano DiMera. In honor of his anniversary, here’s a look back on his iconic character who wreaked havoc on Salem.

1982: Stefano arrived in Salem after son Tony and learned that he had sired Lee Dumonde’s daughter, Renee, who Tony was wooing. When Evan Whyland produced a letter that incriminated Stefano in murder and money laundering and attempted to blackmail him, Stefano orchestrated Evan’s car to crash, killing Evan and injuring Maggie. Stefano also had his men hold Mickey prisoner on his private island and made Anna discredit Stefano’s sworn enemy, Roman.

1983: Stefano hired a henchman to kill Roman during his wedding to Marlena. Fortunately, Eugene spotted the assailant, Roman was spared and the couple married. Stefano later took Marlena and Liz DiMera hostage. Roman rescued the two women and apprehended Stefano. While awaiting trial, Stefano seemingly suffered a fatal stroke.

1984: Using the code name Phoenix, Stefano framed Roman for the Salem Stalker murders. Roman uncovered that Stefano had faked his death with help from nurse Kelly Chase, who he then had killed (along with Trista, Eugene’s wife). Stefano schemed to have nephew Andre, who was disguising himself as Roman with a lifelike latex mask, murder Marlena during a televised concert. He was foiled by Roman, then was briefly presumed dead again when his limo plunged into icy waters during a police chase. A not-so-dead Stefano needed a mysterious trio of prisms to cure his brain tumor. After struggling with Stefano on a cliff, Roman fell off the side, and “died” in Bo’s arms. However, when returning to retrieve Roman’s body, Bo discovered it was gone. Stefano had snatched it away.

What A Gem: Stefano on his prism quest.

1985: Stefano blamed the Brady family for daughter Megan’s death. He kidnapped Marlena and Roman’s young twins, Eric and Sami. Bo rescued them, but Marlena vowed to get justice. Marlena and Bo headed to an ice arena where one of the three prisms was stored. Marlena and Stefano ended up scuffling on scaffolding, and Marlena shot him “dead.” She was prosecuted for his murder, but was freed after a mistrial.

1988: Stefano resurfaced ready to claim his son, deaf Benjy, who Steve and Kayla were in the process of adopting. Roman (later revealed to be John and a victim of Stefano’s psychological programming) worked to prove that Stefano was alive and causing mayhem. DiMera took Carrie as a hostage. He lured the Bradys to his island, where he ordered “Roman” to kill his clan. The plan failed when “Roman” couldn’t bring himself to carry out Stefano’s deadly wishes, and Stefano made his getaway in a helicopter.

1993: Stefano was taken captive by Curtis Reed, who tried to press Kristen for ransom money. Curtis’s plot failed when Stefano killed him. Stefano and Peter schemed to kill John.

1994: After having Belle’s DNA tested and learning that John was the baby’s father, Stefano forced Marlena to confess that she had cheated on Roman with John during the child’s baptism ceremony. John linked Stefano to Curtis Reed’s murder. Stefano faked his death in an exploding car and hid out at Maison Blanche in Louisiana. He lured John and Marlena there and held them hostage. Upon freeing himself, John struggled with Stefano, who disappeared into the water. Later, back in Salem, Stefano secretly fed Marlena psychedelic drugs in a sadistic courting ritual.

1995: Celeste warned Stefano of a greater power in Salem. That power was Satan, who had taken possession of Marlena. Stefano was determined to help her and vowed to kill John if he got in his way. Stefano sneaked into Marlena’s bedroom, but she turned into a monster and tossed him from a balcony, leaving him physically injured and an amnesiac.

1996: Stefano’s memory and obsession with Marlena were restored when he was zapped by lightning. DiMera spirited an ailing Peter out of Salem, allowing Jack to take the fall for his “murder.” Stef kidnapped Marlena, keeping her in an underground cage in Paris. She was ultimately freed by John. Stefano was presumed dead in an explosion, but revealed himself to Kristen, and helped her conceal from John that she had miscarried by finding a pregnant look-alike, Susan, to dupe him. When Laura found out both about Kristen’s flat tummy and Peter’s non-death, Stefano wiped out her memory.

Cage Match: Stefano held Marlena (Deidre Hall) prisoner.

1997: Susan learned that Stefano had impregnated her (with the future EJ) via in vitro fertilization. Stefano kept Jack’s cellmate, Travis, on his payroll. Stef helped Kristen (who’d been busted for her baby lie) foil John and Marlena’s wedding with the “gift” of a presumed-dead Roman. Stefano was arrested for (some of) his misdeeds, but secured his prison release in exchange for a cure for Roman’s fatal illness (a rare orchid that he and Kristen trekked into the rain forest to retrieve).

1998: Stefano plotted to gain custody of Susan’s baby, Elvis (aka EJ), but Marlena and John made sure Susan kept her son and left Salem safely with her husband, Edmund. Stefano had Rolf implant a chip into Vivian’s tooth that controlled her mood, then married her. He began to plot her demise to get his hands on her fortune and the belongings of her late husband, Jonesy.

1999: Stefano tasked Dr. Rolf with activating a chip in Hope’s brain that turned her into Gina so that she could work on some art forgeries and return to Europe with him. Bo was concerned about Hope’s odd behavior and began worrying that Stefano was manipulating her again. His concerns were warranted, because while believing she was Gina, Hope had sex with both Stefano and John (who was drugged and thought he was The Pawn) on a submarine and later turned up pregnant. Meanwhile, Stefano was holding the real Princess Gina in a castle turret in Europe.

2000: Gina locked Stefano and Hope in a secret room in her castle. The pair managed to escape. Once freed, Stefano, who learned about Hope’s pregnancy, masterminded a baby switch between her newborn (who he believed that he had sired) and the sickly son of Dr. Rolf’s niece, Marlo, with Hope’s tot going to Lexie (Stefano’s daughter by Celeste).

2001: Stefano was forced to kill Marlo when she barged into the DiMera mansion and threatened to reveal all about the baby swap unless she was given the payment she’d been promised for her baby. When Lexie discovered the truth about her adopted son, Isaac, Stefano promised to do everything in his power to help her keep the child. As the police closed in on Stefano’s twisted deeds, there was a standoff at the mansion and gunshots were fired. In the mayhem, Stefano escaped.

2007: John and Marlena were successful in tracking down Stefano, who was hospitalized, and questioned him about EJ. Meanwhile, Stefano’s henchman gave EJ an order to kill John. Stefano plotted for EJ to conceive a child with Sami, wanting a male heir for the DiMera empire. He mind-controlled Steve via a devil tarot card and swiped John’s kidney because he was in dire need of a transplant. Stefano strong-armed Sami into marrying EJ by promising an end to the Brady/DiMera feud, and she reluctantly agreed. After Sami and EJ’s son, Johnny, was born, Stefano met the boy and promised to mold him into a true DiMera.

2008: After Lucas confessed to shooting EJ, Stefano arranged to have him killed in prison, but EJ stopped the hit. Upon discovering that Stefano was holding the presumed-dead John captive in the DiMera mansion, EJ exposed his father’s misdeeds. Marlena and Hope sneaked into Stefano’s lab and found John, whose memories were being erased and was being brainwashed into becoming Stefano’s soldier. Stefano was arrested, and Marlena injected him with a drug that turned him into a vegetable. When Stefano recovered, he sought revenge.

Mind Bender: Stefano had big plans for John (Drake Hogestyn).

2009: Stefano was revealed to have ordered a hit on Mayor Marino. He blamed Philip for Tony’s “death” and tried to rub him out. Kate shunned Stefano for trying to kill her son, Lucas. Stefano colluded with Nicole (and ordered a hit on Dr. Baker) to keep Sami from finding out that Sami was Sydney’s mother.He encouraged Nicole to keep up the ruse that Sydney was her daughter with EJ. Stefano got Kate to marry him by vowing to keep her out of jail for her crimes against Chloe and Daniel.

To Have And To Hold: Kate (Lauren Koslow) became the last Mrs. Stefano DiMera.

2010: Having destroyed his relationship with EJ over keeping the Grace/Sydney baby switch from him, Stefano blackmailed EJ into letting him spend time with Sydney. Father and son eventually reconciled. When EJ was shot in the head at the mansion (by Sami), Stef sought the identity of his shooter. Stefano kicked Kate out for concealing from him that he had another son, Chad. He tried to connect with Chad, who wanted no part of him or the DiMera family.

2011: Stefano masterminded an organ-trafficking scheme. To break up Sami and Rafe’s marriage, he had Rafe’s life taken over by a look-alike, Arnold, while holding the real Rafe hostage and erasing his memory. Stefano and Kate reconciled, and she encouraged Chad to forge a relationship with his father. Stefano was thrilled when Chad decided to move into the mansion. Stefano and EJ were arrested when Arnold was apprehended and struck a plea deal to put his captors behind bars. To ensure that he and EJ went free, Stefano orchestrated Arnold’s “murder” to prevent the man from testifying against them.

2012: Stefano took Hope and John prisoner in Alamania. He convinced the pair to be turned back into Princess Gina and the Pawn and steal works of art for him, threatening to harm Bo and Marlena if they didn’t comply. Stefano divorced Kate for cheating on him with Ian and mourned the death of his daughter, Lexie, when she succumbed to a fatal brain tumor. Stefano was presumed dead again after being confronted by various gun-wielding Salem-ites and shot. In reality, Ian had faked his death.

Missing You: Lexie’s (Renee Jones) hit Stefano hard.

2013: Stefano swiped evidence from the police station that implicated Will in EJ’s shooting. He was furious upon learning that Rafe was sleeping with Kate and sought the ultimate revenge by hiring Bernadi to castrate Rafe. When Sami caught Bernardi in the act and shot him dead, Stefano helped her avoid a prison sentence. However, he forced EJ, who had schemed to gain control of the DiMera empire, to return power to him first.

2014: Stefano worked to keep Kristen’s drugging of Eric from becoming public knowledge. He learned that EJ had slept with Abigail and agreed to keep the secret if EJ helped him reconcile with Kate. Stefano and EJ were outraged when Sami and Kate orchestrated a plot to take over DiMera Enterprises. When EJ was shot dead, Stefano had him injected with a mysterious drug and stole his son’s body from the morgue.

2015: Stefano plotted with Chad and Victor to take down Kate. The plan worked like a charm, and Stefano was reinstated as CEO of DiMera Enterprises. Stefano tried to get Chad to marry Abigail for her inheritance. Stefano blamed Marlena for Kristen’s “death” in Italy (Kristen had fallen out of a window during a struggle with Marlena). Stefano took Marlena hostage and ordered his minions to kill her. However, Chad intervened, and Stefano spared her. He then ordered Aiden to marry Hope “or else” and helped Chad evade the police when he was being framed as the Necktie Killer.

2016: After secretly learning he was fatally ill, Stefano framed Hope, who believed he was involved in Bo’s kidnapping, for his “murder” by goading her into shooting him three times at close range.

 

2017: Salem-ites got word that Stefano had apparently faked his death and had been apprehended in Prague — but that turned out to be a ruse masterminded by Steve and Shane (who made himself over to look like Stefano) to spare Hope from a murder rap. However, when Shane and Steve scrutinized photographs taken by the ISA of Shane-as-Stefano, Shane realized that he was not the man in one of the images, and the men speculated that perhaps Stefano really was alive.

2019: Steve returned to Salem with Stefano’s “essence” implanted in him. Operating as the calculating DiMera, he was obsessed with Marlena and shunned Kayla.

2020: “Stefano” had Dr. Rolf work to obliterate Marlena’s memories of John and orchestrated a plot to marry her. A reluctant Marlena wed “Stefano,” but John barged in on the couple’s wedding night attacking “Stefano” and saving Marlena. “Stefano” was hospitalized, and Kayla operated to remove his brain chip, restoring Steve to his old self and seemingly ending Stefano’s long reign of terror for good.