Asa arrived in Llanview in 1979 and set his sights on young Samantha Vernon. During their wedding ceremony, Asa's first wife, Olympia (who he had held prisoner) showed up at the church, but was subdued before she could interrupt the ceremony. When she later fell to her death, a stunned Samantha learned the truth and left Asa.

Next on his long list of brides, Asa married Delila Ralston, but when Asa's boat exploded in Florida, he was presumed dead. Thinking that Bo and Delila were having an affair, Asa engineered the explosion, faked his death, and then revealed his presence at his own memorial service! Delila divorced Asa, who then married Becky Lee Abbott, who was pregnant with Bo's child. To give the baby a name, Becky married Asa for a short time.

When Asa went to the island of Malakeva on business, viewers discovered that he had been secretly married to Pamela Stuart, for ten years. Until she discovered the truth, Pam believed that Asa was a man called Jeb Stuart. Much to Asa's chagrin, Pamela came to Llanview to begin her life as "Mrs. Asa Buchanan." Later, she sued Asa for divorce and demanded a chunk of his vast fortune!

Asa's thirst for the opposite sex was satiated upon meeting up with old friend, Renee Divine, a former madam. Their attraction was instant. Renee set her sights on Asa, asking him to make a lady out of her. Cord and Tina joined Asa and Renee in a double wedding ceremony in November, 1988.

In April 1992, Renee caught Asa kissing Dorian's niece, Blair Daimler, and divorced him. Months into their loveless marriage, a bitter Blair told Asa that she never loved him, and she slept with Max on their wedding day! Asa sued Blair for a divorce -- and won! Blair received nothing! At the same time, Carlo Hesser's widow, Alex Hesser, set her sights on Asa and he resisted the sexy blonde for as long as he could! Their outlandish October 1994 Cleopatra-style wedding in New York's Central Park was the event of the year!

Through assassination plots and secrets galore, Alex and Asa's stormy and sexy marriage endured until the 1995 return of Alex's "not-so-late" husband, Carlo Hesser. Alex secured a Caribbean divorce from Carlo, then tied the knot with Asa again in the summer of '95. All the while, Alex and Carlo were having an affair.

In 1996, Asa discovered Carlo and Alex's deception, and exposed their affair! Asa granted Alex her divorce, then got even with both Carlo and Alex by crashing their wedding and exposing the fact that Alex was faking a pregnancy. Asa knew exactly what he was doing when he ripped off Alex's wedding dress, exposing a pillow strapped to her stomach! Late in the year, Carlo was murdered -- this time for good!

In 1997, Asa was thrown in jail for withholding the fact that he witnessed the murder - and never breathed a word to anyone. In the slammer, 'ol Asa drove his captors crazy with his demands. Once again, ol' Asa Buchanan proved he was as cantankerous as ever!

The Buchanans were surprised, but pleased when Asa and Renee went public with their on-again love affair.

On their wedding day in 1999, Renee stopped the wedding to tell Asa a long held secret. Renee had given birth to Asa's son years before in Nevada. Asa was shocked, but thrilled at the thought of another Buchanan heir! Renee and Asa got hitched and then resumed the search for their son.

Asa was skeptical when evidence "proved" that Max Holden turned out to be his long lost son.

Other than meddling in the lives of his children, Asa's favorite pastime is finding ways to destroy the people he hates most - the Rappaports!

Asa continued to seek revenge against the Rappaports and tried to block Ben from being hired at the hospital. The vote was tied until Dorian shocked the room, and especially Viki, by casting her vote in favor of Ben. Unsatisfied, Asa brought Skye Chandler to town to make trouble for Ben. Their first order of business was to get Ben's medical license revoked.

By this time, Asa had come to accept Max as his son and enlisted Max's help in his scheme against Sam. Will accepted Asa's job offer and had no idea that Asa was using him as a pawn in his plan to destroy the Rappaports and Davidsons. To that end, Asa framed Will for embezzling money from the Megan Foundation.

Asa wasn't pleased when Kevin became engaged to Sam's sister Grace and he hired a private investigator to dig up some dirt on the young woman. Asa confronted Grace with some unsavory facts from her past and Grace ran out into the rain. Grace became trapped in a building being constructed on Asa's property and ended up drowning to death when a flood engulfed the structure. Everyone blamed Asa for Grace's death, but he insisted he had merely wanted to get her out of town and never wanted any harm to come to her.

Asa began to rely on Max, his only "loyal son," more and more as he continued his quest to drive the "Rappadavidsons" out of Llanview. This vendetta had cost Asa most of what was left of his family as Bo wanted nothing to do with Asa when it became clear he had framed Will. Jessica also distanced herself from Asa after getting proof on tape of what he had done to Will. When Will, Jessica and Cristian went on the run, Viki blamed Asa for the predicament Jessica was in. Even faithful Renee reached her breaking point over Asa's schemes and ended up walking out on him.

Asa was confident he was doing the right thing and was certain his family would come around to see things his way. Asa was very happy to learn that Matthew might actually be Bo's son and won't rest until he has the newest Buchanan heir under his thumb!

When Bo and Sam had another DNA test conducted on Matthew, Asa realized once and for all that Matthew was Sam's biological son. Asa, however, wasn't about to give up on his quest to destroy the "Rappadavidsons." Slippery as ever, Asa even managed to weasel out of trouble when his role in framing Will was exposed.

Asa upped the stakes when he hired a hitman named Mr. Gray to kill Ben at his and Viki's wedding, but Ben survived the attempted hit. Lindsay, however, had seen Asa meeting with Mr. Gray and began blackmailing him in order to pay off Colin, who was blackmailing her!

Asa's crime was almost uncovered when Mr. Gray, aka Charlie, was arrested, but Charlie didn't rat Asa out to the cops.

In February of 2001, Asa went to Todd and Blair's wedding. Todd stopped the wedding, and decided to announce three of Llanview's secrets to everyone. Asa happened to be involved in one of those secrets. Todd told everyone, including Asa that Max was not actually his son. Asa however didn't believe him. Then Renee came out, and told Asa that it was true. Max tried to cover up for himself, but it was useless. Todd went on to say that Ben was the real Buchanan heir. Renee and Asa were in shock, and Asa then had a mild heartache!

When Asa woke up in the hospital he couldn't bring himself to forgive Renee, because she kept the truth about Max from him this long. Renee stayed by his side anyway, and kept trying to prove that she really loved him.

Max tried to get Asa to forgive him, but Asa was very mad. Asa wanted to press charges against Max for fraud, but Max blackmailed Asa! Max said that if Asa pressed charges, then he would tell Ben that Asa was the one who hired the hit on Ben. Asa was furious, and more vengeful than ever!

Ben had inside connections with the mob, and ended up finding out from an old flame, Gina Russo that Asa was the one who hired the hit out on him. Ben was furious, and told Renee. Renee and Ben confronted Asa and Asa had a hard time explaining. Just before that Asa decided that he wanted Renee back, but now Renee refused to stop the divorce, and the divorce was finalized. Ben was very mad at his father, but he did not press charges because he said that he was done with revenge.

In a plot to get back at Max, Asa married Max's ex-wife, Gabrielle Medina. If that wasn't enough Asa adopted Max's son, Al Holden. Max was very mad, but tried to stay calm. Max thought that's all Asa was going to do to him to get his revenge, but Max was wrong. Asa had a plan to get back at Max much worse than that. Asa was going to pretend to die, and frame Max for his murder. Gabrielle was in on this right form the beginning and they slowly put their plan in to action. Gabrielle also hated Max, because Max left her and Al all alone while Max was rich by pretending to be Asa's son.

In Asa's plot to get back at Max, Gabrielle seduced Max. Gabrielle ended up making love to Max, and Asa taped it. Max believed Gabrielle hated Asa, but they were really planning on destorying him. While Gabrielle was seducing Max, she found herself being drawn back to Max. Sooner than later Gabrielle was in love with Max again, but couldn't tell Asa that. Gabrielle decided she couldn't go through with the plan anymore, and had to find a way out of this without making Asa mad at her. Asa overheard Gabrielle talking one day, and found out that Gabrielle had feelings for Max again. Now Asa wanted revenge on both Max and Gabrielle.

Gabrielle told Max that she found out about Asa's plan, and was warning him about it. She didn't tell him that she was in on it from the beginning though. Max was furious, and Max and Gabrielle plotted to kill Asa so that he couldn't ruin them. Then Asa told Gabrielle that they weren't going to go threw with their plan anymore. A relieved Gabrielle went to tell Max that Asa had changed his mind, and then Max and Gabrielle heard a huge crash in the other side of the mansion. Max and Gabrielle found Asa dead in the living room. They called the police, and the police came right over. Max and Gabrielle both suspected each other of murdering Asa, and the police thought that Max and Gabrielle did it together. No one knew what really happened though.

Later, it was revealed that Asa was actually alive, and living it up on the island of St. Blaze! Asa owned the island of St. Blaze and thought it would be the perfect spot for his last days. It was also revealed that Nigel was a part of the whole scam to get back at Gabrielle and Max. Back in Llanview, everyone was very sad to learn that Asa had "died". They had a funeral for him and every thing. The police still didn't believe that Asa "died" of natural causes, and suspected Max and Gabrielle of killing him. Asa had framed Max and Gabrielle by leaving little clues all around for Bo to find, and charge them with his "murder". In Asa's will, Asa left all his fortune that hadn't already been given to other members of his family to Gabrielle, which made the police suspect her even more. He also gave a huge sum of money to Max, which he didn't have time to change in his will before he "died". Asa left Bo the Buchanan lodge.

At the lodge, Bo found a bottle of poison pills that Gabrielle was supposedly giving Asa, but really Asa just planted them there. With all this evidence against Gabrielle and Max, the police charged them with Asa's murder. Gabrielle and Max were both furious, because they didn't do it.

Meanwhile, Alex was back in town and stole Asa's "ashes" from Gabrielle. Alex thought the perfect spot for her to burry them would be on Asa's island of St. Blaze. Alex went there to throw Asa's ashes out to sea. Alex and Asa almost ran in to each other several times, and eventually did run in to each other. Alex was shock to learn that Asa was a live, and blackmailed him about this secret she found out. Alex told him that if Asa didn't marry her again then Alex would tell Bo the truth, that Asa was still alive.

Back in Llanview, Bo found a tape that showed Gabrielle and Max saying that they were going to kill Asa. Bo noticed something strange about this though. The tape was mixed, it had words from different times with different background noises. Bo later found out that this tape was planted and knew someone was framing Gabrielle and Max, and actually suspected Alex. Gabrielle and Max trying to get away from Llanview and took an airplane to St. Blaze's island so they wouldn't be caught, but unfortunatley for them, Bo was on that same plane to St. Blaze's looking for Alex.

While on St. Blazes island, Bo, Gabrielle, and Max looked for Alex. Meanwhile, Alex and a blackmailed Asa were about to get married. During their "i do's" Bo, Gabrielle, and Max walked in on Asa and Alex's wedding. They were all furious to find Asa a live! Although Asa was caught, he got out of marrying Alex.

Once Asa was brought back to Llanview, all his family that he tricked in to believing that he was dead were all furious at him. Gabrielle and Max were let off the hook for Asa's murder. Although Asa wasn't done with Gabrielle yet. Asa told Max that Gabrielle was in on the plan from the beginning. A furious Max walked out on Gabrielle, and told her that he hated her for what she tried to do to him. Then Asa through Gabrielle out of the mansion with no where to go. She was homeless. Even though Asa was in big trouble with the law for fraud, he got his revenge and was happy to see Max and Gabrille suffer for what they did to him.

The day Asa was sentenced, he pleaded guilty to all charges. Because Asa had admitted that he did wrong, the judge let him off a little easy. The judge sentenced Asa to 150 community service hours, and a court appointed therapist, Rae Cummings. For his 150 community service hours, Asa had to serve them for his family, the people he hurt so much. 50 hours for Bo at the police station, 50 hours for Renee at the Palace, and 50 hours for Ben at Crossroads!

Courtosy of ABC.com