Steve Andropoulos came to Oakdale not long after his older brother, Nick, arrived. Unfortunately, the reunion was not a happy one since Nick hated Steve for failing to save his wife, Andrea, and daughter in a fire. In addition to this, Nick was also angered by Steve's reckless behavior. Over the course of many weeks, the animosity between the brothers escalated until one night a drunken Steve mistook Nick's girlfriend, Kim Stewart, for Andrea and revealed that he had been having an affair with his brother's wife! Kim was forced to keep the affair a secret for Nick's sake. Soon after, Nick let his hatred of Steve go when Steve was hospitalized after an explosion.

Not long afterward, Nick and Kim became engaged. What should have been a happy occasion was marred by none other than Andrea—who hadn't died after all. Though Nick suspected that Steve knew about this all along, Steve was as shocked as Nick was that Andrea was alive. Soon after, Steve demanded that Andrea give him the Green Fire Necklace and started going through her things looking for it. When he finally found it, Steve angrily confessed that he'd been having an affair with Andrea! Enraged, Nick got into a violent fight with Steve and almost killed him. Later, an angry Nick talked to Steve and learned that he stole the necklace because he truly loved Andrea and wanted her to go away with him. Touched, both men wrote Andrea out of their lives and Nick asked Steve to be best man at his wedding. In the meantime, Steve's friend Jay Stallings died in a mining accident. When Jay's widow, Carol, wanted Steve to take her into the mine where Jay died, Steve got nervous. As he described the circumstances of Jay's death to Carol, he had to admit he might have been able to save Jay from the collapse; Carol stopped speaking to a guilt-ridden Steve. He left her a note, offering to leave town if it would make life easier for her, but if he stayed, Steve added, there was nothing in the world he wouldn't do for her. Carol eventually forgave Steve and ended up falling in love and marrying him in Las Vegas.

Now a happily married man, Steve tried to make a better name for himself by running the Stalling Mine. Unfortunately, business wasn't as good as he'd hoped and desperate to give Carol and her daughter a better life, he agreed to let James Stenbeck use the mine in exchange for a large fee. Later, to his dismay, he learned that Stenbeck was using the mine to smuggle drugs. Confronting James, Steve was kidnapped and forced to cooperate under fear that his family would be harmed. Unfortunately, this would spell the end of the Andropoulos's marriage. Once Carol learned that Steve had been involved in the drug smuggling operation, she immediately turned him in to the authorities and then divorced him.

Unfortunately, Steve's imprisonment would forever damage his relationship with Nick. Disgusted by his brother's dishonesty, Nick broke all contact and forbade Kim to see him in prison. Soon after his release, Steve found himself falling in love with Nick's young stepdaughter, Betsy. The feeling was mutual and Betsy offered to give him her trust money so he could start his own business. Though touched by the gesture, Steve refused her offer. Despite everyone's efforts to keep the news a secret, Nick found out that the pair was dating and, suspecting that Steve was only after Betsy's trust fund, Nick went after Steve with Betsy in attendance. Nick later found them picnicking together and violently confronted Steve. In the course of the argument, Nick had a massive heart attack. In agony, Nick muttered that he wished he'd killed Steve and, after extracting a promise from Betsy never to see Steve again, Nick died. Feeling extremely guilty, Betsy vowed to stay away from Steve and entered into a hasty marriage with Craig Montgomery after he saved her from an explosion. Betsy's marriage was strained however due to Craig's jealousy and impotency and finally an unhappy Betsy left him to go to Spain. Steve followed her and declared his love for her over a picnic lunch. No longer able to deny the love she felt for him, Betsy lost her virginity to Steve. Upon returning to Oakdale, Betsy was ready to leave Craig, but lost her nerve when he planned a romantic evening for her. Torn between her love for Steve and her commitment to Craig, Betsy made love to Craig. At the same time, newcomer Diana McColl was making the moves on Steve. Later, when Betsy became pregnant, she was convinced the child was Craig's and decided to commit herself to her marriage. Although Betsy reluctantly chose to remain with Craig, Steve could not accept the idea that she didn't love him anymore.

In the meantime, at his 55th birthday party, Diana's father, Whit, discovered his gold coins were missing, Craig convinced him Steve was the culprit, and when the police searched Steve's apartment, they found one of the coins. Confronted by the cops, Steve bolted, and the police opened fire. Steve was hit in the leg but managed to escape. Later, Betsy, who had been out shopping, got into her car and found Steve in the back seat! She took him to the boathouse and lovingly tended to his wounds. Meanwhile, a grateful Whit promoted Craig to vie president at the factory. Betsy enlisted Steve's friend, Tucker Foster, to help them find out who framed Steve. She thought it was Whit, but Tucker was sure it was Craig! Later, David Stewart caught Betsy sneaking into the supply room at Memorial to get medicine for Steve. She begged her grandfather to come and examine him. David discovered that Steve was suffering from blood poisoning and gangrene and would die unless he got treatment. With Betsy's help, David operated on Steve right there in the boathouse. Steve worried about Betsy's safety, especially in light of her pregnancy, so he departed, leaving a note for her at the boathouse. Upset by the note, Betsy started experiencing severe cramps and was rushed to Memorial. Meanwhile, Tucker and Steve located one of Whit's missing coins at a pawnshop, but by the time they got together the money to buy it, it was gone! Still on the lam, Steve got a job with a traveling circus. Meanwhile, one of Whit's rare coins had been bought by Bobbi Maxwell and her boyfriend, Lonnie. They traced Tucker from the pawnshop and called him for a meeting. Betsy and Steve joined the "coin hunt" and arrived for the meeting to try to buy back the coin. Lonnie told Bobbi that a Mr. Maurice Vermeil had one of the coins and was anxious to get another. Steve and Betsy, along with Tucker, set off after Vermeil.

The threesome found out that Vermeil did have the stolen coin and was planning to auction if off on a cruise to Bermuda. Betsy paid for Steve's passage, and he joined the cruise pretending to be wealthy playboy Daniel Bishop. When Betsy discovered Vermeil was a mobster, she knew she had to warn Steve. When Steve got wind of Craig's attempted deal with Vermeil, he informed the captain there was a stolen coin on board and contacted the police in Bermuda. To avoid being caught, Vermeil was forced to throw the coins overboard. When they reached Bermuda, Steve and Betsy checked into a hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Bishop, and they reconfirmed their love. By this time, Vermeil knew that "Mr. Bishop" was an imposter and was busily plotting Steve's ruin. Unaware that Vermeil was on to him, Steve decided to infiltrate his organization in hopes of finding out who set him up. He was in luck when Ike Slattery, the man Craig hired for the job, showed up. As Steve and Betsy bid each other a sad goodbye in Bermuda, Craig was proposing to Diana in Oakdale. Diana, however, didn't love Craig -- she loved Steve. When she arrived home, Betsy told Craig she was leaving him.

Upon returning from a romantic evening with Steve at the boathouse, Betsy went into labor. It was a breech birth, and Steve had to get her to the hospital quickly! Still a wanted man, he waited in the shadows of the emergency room. Diana discovered him there and tried to get him to leave, but Steve couldn't tear himself away from Betsy, who gave birth to a healthy daughter. In remembrance of her father Dan, she named the child Danielle. The night, Vermeil ordered his security people to find Steve and kill him! Diana helped Steve escape by hiding him in her room, and he rushed back to Memorial just as Betsy took a brief turn for the worse. Craig spotted him, though, and had his rival arrested. But Craig's sister Margo out-smarted him and got Ike Slattery to give her enough information to free Steve. After all was said and done, Betsy told Craig she still planned to leave him for Steve. Meanwhile, Whit figured out the only two people who knew the combination to his safe were Lisa and Craig. He confronted Craig, who was unable to lie out of it, and Whit fired him. Craig told Betsy he had been fired because Whit said he spent too much time with the baby, and Betsy bought the story. Betsy was moved when she heard Craig talking to his sleeping daughter about his losses, and weakly told Steve she couldn't leave Craig right now. When Steve exploded, Betsy stormed out, saying they were through! Diana was supportive of Steve and tried to help him start up his construction company again, although what she really wanted was to get him into her bed. On Kim's advice, a sad Betsy wrote a note to Steve telling him how much she loved him. However, unbeknownst to her, Craig found the note, tore it up and forged a new one saying Betsy loved Craig and regretted having to betray him. The next morning, when Betsy came by to see Steve, Diana answered the door wearing only Steve's shirt. Devastated, Betsy decided she couldn't stay with Craig, so she moved in with Kim.

The next morning when Betsy arrived to get the rest of her things, Craig picked a fight with her and seemed to fall down the stairs. Craig then cried "paralysis," getting Betsy to move back in with him. Meanwhile, a major storm ushered in the New Year. After it had passed, Betsy's boathouse was on shaky ground. Not about to give up on doing Steve in and knowing that he was already scheduled to work on the boathouse, Craig loosened a support beam so that it would fall on Steve's head. However, Steve and Betsy had decided to work together to salvage their special place, and the beam landed on Betsy instead. Luckily, Steve was able to save her from the wreckage. With the boathouse now destroyed, Craig knew he was sitting on valuable lakefront property. He located a Colonel Jameson, who eyed the property as a potential site for a chemical plant. Jameson shrewdly promised Craig a top level-job if he were able to talk Betsy into selling it. However, Betsy had other ideas. She surprised Craig by telling him she planned to build a home for abandoned children on the lot and call it the Refuge. Steve's construction company put in a bid. Diana heard about Steve's plans, got hold of the other bids and changed them, making Steve's the lowest. Steve and Tucker's company got the job. Meanwhile, when Betsy couldn't go through with a romantic evening, Craig left in disgust. Upset that Steve was hindering her marriage, Betsy tried to destroy everything that reminded her of him. She found the book of Greek poetry Steve had given her when they first met and decided to give it back to him.

When Betsy arrived at Steve's apartment, she tried to say she was through with him, but the chemistry between them was too strong, and they fell into a passionate embrace. Betsy and Steve agreed not to make love until after she had left Craig. Later, after an angry Craig accused her of having an affair with Steve, as gently as possible, Betsy told Craig their marriage was over. Then she went upstairs to pack and discovered that Danielle was gone! Craig said he couldn't let Betsy take her away, so he hid her. Craig threatened to leave town with Danielle if Betsy called the police, and if she went to Steve, Craig told her, she'd never see her daughter again. Luckily, Craig's mother, Lyla, traced Danielle to the home of Mrs. Hoffman, a maid whom Betsy had fired previously, and Danielle was returned to her mother. At the same time, Diana informed Steve that she knew Craig was faking his paralysis. Steve found Betsy at Kim's, and when she told him she'd left Craig for good, they had a joyful reunion. After learning that Steve, not, Craig, was Dani's father, Betsy and Steve were finally free to marry.

Unfortunately the couple's wedding plans were almost put on hold when Diana announced she was pregnant. Though Diana was hoping the Betsy would leave Steve, Betsy assured her that she'd stand by him. Though he planned to marry her for the sake of the child, he found that he couldn't enter into a loveless marriage and watched as Diana married his cousin, Frank. Though he had planned to help support his child, Diana would tragically lose the baby. Not long after, Steve and Betsy learned a shocking secret: he was NOT an Andropoulos! Wanting to know who his father was, the couple traveled to Greece and learned that his mother's true love was a man named Michael Christopher. Soon after marrying Betsy, Steve decided to locate his real father.

Betsy and Steve were finally happy, or so they thought. One day while driving, Betsy was in a terrible accident in Vermont. Distraught, Steve continued the search for his father but kept getting dead ends. Finally, a pianist named Juliet Hanover revealed the truth: Michael Christopher, their father, was arrested for selling secrets to the Russians and died in prison. Shocked, it was later revealed that Michael was indeed alive and was actually a double agent. After a reunion with his father in Amsterdam, Steve arrived in Oakdale to find out that Betsy was still alive!

Unfortunately the couple's happiness wouldn't last very long. Wanting to give Betsy everything, Steve spent lavishly but refused to tell a concerned Betsy where the money was coming from. Soon he found himself in debt, personally and professionally. Ashamed and too proud to seek a loan from Craig, Steve left Betsy to go to Greece. Later, Betsy was heartbroken to learn that he was serving a life sentence in a Greek jail for trafficking drugs and divorced him.