Cliff Barnes

Clifford "Cliff" Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, is a fictional character from the popular American television series Dallas. The Barnes family are competitors and sometimes enemies of the Ewing family. Cliff is the son of Willard "Digger" Barnes and Rebecca Barnes, the brother of Pamela Barnes Ewing and the half-brother of Katherine Wentworth. J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) was Cliff's personal nemesis, with Cliff and J.R. continuing on the bitter feud that started with their fathers, Digger Barnes and Jock Ewing, from their oil wildcatting days in the 1930s. Cliff and J.R. were the only two characters to appear throughout the entire run of the series. A running gag on the series is Cliff's fondness for Chinese take-out.

History

Original series

During the show's original conception, the character of Cliff was modeled on the late Robert F. Kennedy. However, he evolved into a bumbling sad sack who was very much his own worst enemy. A lawyer and a bureaucrat, not an oil man, Cliff was out of his element when dealing in the cutthroat oil business and, despite repeated attempts, would always be outsmarted and outdone by his rival J.R. Cliff finally beats J.R. in the final season, and takes over Ewing Oil.