Santo DiMera (James Scott) was a traveling salesman in Italy. He began an affair with novice Colleen Brady (Alison Sweeney) while he was in Galway. They were to be married but she killed herself after discovering he already had a wife. This began the feud between the families and also sent Santo on the path to becoming an international crime lord.
Stefano DiMera (Joseph Mascolo) could often seem like more myth than man – there’s a reason they call him The Phoenix – and he produced an almost mythical amount of children only matched in number by his fake deaths. The many children (we know about) who he sired or adopted have rarely lived up to his expectations and have tended to suffer as a result. Unlike Victor Kiriakis (John Aniston), who is a more traditional crime kingpin in the mafioso style, Stefano tends to approach more cartoonish levels of villainy, limited neither by the grave nor the other forces of nature and taking advantage of supernatural forces whenever he can. Building on the criminal legacy and financial fortune of his father, Stefano carried on the family vendetta against the Brady family and used successive generations of his family to do so.
Tony DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) first appeared in Salem in 1981. Still married to Liz Chandler (Gloria Loring), he wanted to get back together with Liz, and find out if Salem was a good place for his family to settle down – with Stefano, his father. At one point he was engaged to Renee DuMonde who was his sister. That ended and then later, it was revealed Renee wasn’t his sister. Tony had a baby with Liz, which turned out to be Neil Curtis’ child. Mid-80s, Tony took up with Anna Fredericks, and married her. Anna and Tony went through their ups and downs but are still together, having moved to Europe.
André DiMera (Thaao Penghlis) was originally thought to be Stefano’s nephew and only much later revealed to be his son. He had plastic surgery to make him into Tony’s doppelganger. While Tony was unwilling to do his stepfather’s more brutal bidding, André was more than happy to and terrorized both Tony and the townspeople for decades. Maintaining the identity of his double, he married Kristen, though she frequently left him for John Black (Drake Hogestyn). When Stefano was either assumed dead or absent, Tony would up the ante in his convoluted destruction of the lives of Salemites, going so far as to fake their deaths and transport them to Melaswen. Although Stefano tended to tolerate the murderous excesses of his protégé, things finally went too far when André murdered Benjy Hawk (Jim Lunsford) and Bart Beiderbecke (Steve Blackwood). Like his father, André has displayed a knack for returning from the dead frequently.
Kristen DiMera (Eileen Davidson, Stacy Haiduk) and her brother Peter Blake (Jason Brooks) were raised by Stefano after the apparent death of their parents. Her early years in Salem consisted mostly of her scheming to get Marlena Evans (Deidre Hall) out of John Black’s life and trying to have a child after she learned she was infertile. This included using a doppelganger, Susan Banks (Davidson/Haiduk), as a surrogate. After years of failure, she went to Europe only to be prodded to return and almost instantly seducing John’s son, Brady Black (Eric Martsolf). When John and Marlena managed to destroy their relationship, she raped Marlena’s son, Eric (Greg Vaughan) in revenge. During her on again off/again relationship with Brady, Kristen managed to steal his child from Theresa Donovan’s (Jen Lilley) womb, fake her death again, and returned to terrorize many Salemites once more.
Lexie Carver (Renée Jones) came to Salem unaware that she was Stefano’s daughter with Celeste Perrault (Tanya Boyd). She entered med school after being kicked off the police force. She was later fired for violating medical ethics but got her job back eventually. Lexie had a complicated relationship with the DiMera family, often relying on them to help her in underhanded ways and they helped to fuel her long antagonism with Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney). The doctor died of a brain tumor that she had developed after being exposed to toxic fumes when she was being held captive by André in the DiMera tunnels.
Benjy Hawk (Jim Lunsford) was Stefano’s son with Ellen Hawk (Sandy McPeak), who he later had killed. Although he mostly avoided Salem, Benjy had met Steve (Stephen Nichols) and Kayla Johnson (Mary Beth Evans) as a young man and came to town after hearing they were dying. Benjy was forced by his father and EJ to do their bidding. He was later abducted and had his liver stolen to save his father. Benjy was murdered by André during one of his killing sprees.
Megan Hathaway (Cheryl-Ann Wilson) arrived in Salem in 1984 as one of Stefano’s secret children. One of Stefano’s favorites, she inherited his passion for mind-games and ran one of his cartels. She was Bo Brady’s (Peter Reckell) high school lover and aborted their child, telling Bo she gave it up for adoption. Megan used this as a way to manipulate Bo and schemed to murder a woman and pass her child off as her own. Megan was swept up in the search for the fabled three prisms to save her father’s life. Her scheme to electrocute Hope Williams (Kristian Alfonso) wound up backfiring when Larry Welch (Andrew Hyatt Masset) caught her and accidentally killed her.
Renée DuMonde (Philece Sampler) had an awkward time settling into Salem. Her sister, Lee (Brenda Benet), was appalled when she began dating Tony DiMera, ignorant that they were siblings. After reading Lee’s diary and discovering her true parentage, Renée broke things off with Tony and married David Bennett (Gregg Marx). Tony later discovered that he was not actually Stefano’s son. When her marriage to David collapsed, Renée pursued Tony again but had to try to remove Anna to do it. This failed and she married Alex Marshall (Quinn Redeker) before publicly threatening to annul their marriage and winding up dead at the hands of the Salem Slasher.
Peter Blake (Jason Brooks) was both a DiMera and the family attorney. Although he was always up to his neck in the family’s illegal operations, he did attempt to go straight once and awhile, at least for the sake of his love, Jennifer Horton (Melissa Reeves). However, even this included setting Jack and Laura Horton (Jaime Lyn Bauer) up. The battle between Peter and Jack over Jennifer went on for years and including shootings, abductions, and brainwashing. Peter eventually contracted Jungle Madness from a mosquito bite, which made him even more dangerous. After he pursued Jack and Jenn as they hid from him in a circus, she wound up apparently dead and Jack in prison. Peter crashed her funeral with a gun, only to have her rise from her coffin with some circus magic. Peter was sent to prison and subsequently released only to vanish.
EJ DiMera (James Scott) was the son of Stefano and Susan Banks. Although she tried to keep him from the DiMeras, she had no luck and he was whisked off to boarding school. He returned later to continue his father’s war on the Brady clan, including shooting John and raping Sami. After blackmailing her into marriage, he was shot on their wedding day by Lucas Horton (Bryan Dattilo). Although he tried to reform himself for the sake of his children, this was rarely the case. The apparent loss of baby Sydney sent him into a spiral resulting in his taking revenge on both Sami and Nicole Walker (Arianne Zucker), which eventually resulted in him being shot again, this time by Will Horton (Chandler Massey). Over the years, he and Sami would reunite and betray one another many times. Finally, EJ betrayed Stefano and was apparently murdered on the orders of Clyde Weston (James Read) only for Kristen to smuggle his body away and keep him alive.
Chad DiMera (Casey Deidrick, Billy Flynn) came to Salem while a teenager to be close to his ex, Mia McCormack (Taylor Spreitler), who soon devastated him by giving away their child. His life continued to crumble as he discovered that his mother, Madeline Peterson-Woods (Jessica Tuck) used to be a prostitute and his real father was Stefano. After Chad’s mother died from a brain aneurism during a fight with him, Stefano tried to bring him into the family fold, but this was made awkward by his romance with Abigail Deveraux (Kate Mansi). This was broken up by him falling for Melanie Jonas (Molly Burnett) and then by Gabi Hernandez (Camila Banus) stalking him. Most of the following years would involve him pursing Abigail and then having random affairs when things fell apart. After being almost murdered several times himself, he was briefly accused of being the Necktie Killer.
Stefan DiMera (Tyler Christopher, Brandon Barash) was Stefano’s son with Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel). Stefano never knew of his existence and Stefan arrived in Salem looking to take a leading position in the DiMera empire. However, he soon fell for EJ and Chad’s ex, Abigail DiMera, and even harder for her alternative personality, Gabby. This was doomed by her regaining her sanity. After Vivian was shot, Stefan began taking revenge, which included throwing Chad and Kate out of the family business. He teamed up with Gabi Hernandez and pushed her into helping him and Vivian in their schemes. When the Salem PD came after his mother, Stefan was shot while trying to save her.
Jake Lambert (Brandon Barash) came to Salem on April 23, 2020. Ben Weston (Robert Scott Wilson) saw him working in a garage where he was applying for a job and couldn’t get over the resemblance to his former but dead boss, Stefan O. DiMera. Gabi DiMera met him and was certain he was Stefan and with Vivian Alamain (Louise Sorel) and Kate Roberts’ (Lauren Koslow) working together for once, Kate got Dr. Rolf (Will Utay) to give Kate the serum to hand over to Gabi. Though Jake didn’t want to do it, he injected himself with the serum but it didn’t work. This, after it worked on helping Kate to recall where she lost a favorite pen. Ivan Marais (Ivan G’Vera) returned and admitted Vivian gave birth to two babies and one was small and sickly and Ivan took the bigger one and left and didn’t even know the second survived. He never told Vivian because he didn’t want her to grieve for the child that ‘didn’t exist’.All that is known about Jake’s former life so far is that he was brought up in Philly and that his adoptive mother won’t return is calls.
Theo Carver (Terrell Ransom, Jr., Kyler Pettis) was Lexie’s son with Abe Carver (James Reynolds). At the age of five, he was diagnosed with autism. Later, he fell in love with Claire Brady (Olivia Rose Keegan), although that relationship soured after he accused her of making a sex tape of them. Theo was accidentally shot by JJ Deveraux (Casey Moss).
Johnny DiMera (Aaron and Griffin Kunitz) and his sister Allie Horton (Campbell and Carolyn Rose) were conceived on the same night. It turned out that Allie was Lucas Horton’s child with Sami and Johnny was EJ’s. Regardless, Sami refused to break up the siblings. Grace Brady (Ailish and Julia O’Connor) was Chad’s daughter with Mia McCormack and died of meningitis while still a baby. Mia agreed to have Nicole adopt her child without Chad’s knowledge. Nicole had swapped her for Sydney after Sami gave birth. It was only later that the parentage of the child was revealed.
Johnny and his sister Allie Horton (Lindsay Arnold) were conceived on the same night. It turned out that Allie was Lucas Horton’s child with Sami and Johnny was EJ’s. Regardless, Sami refused to break up the siblings.
Sydney DiMera’s (Berlyn and Brooklyn Baca with Aaron or Griffin Kunitz as Johnny DiMera and Terrell Ransom as Theo Carver) and parentage was later revealed when Rafe Hernandez (Galen Gering) pressed for a test. Nicole almost immediately abducted her and went on the run. The child was then abducted from her by EJ and Anna and used to take revenge on Nicole and Sami. This also brought EJ and Sami closer together, but their eventual wedding hit a snag when Rafe revealed that EJ had been behind the kidnapping.
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