Ken Kercheval

Ken Kercheval was an American actor.

A music and drama major at Indiana University, he later studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York. Kercheval began his professional acting career on the stage, making his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About A Soldier. He also appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof.

Kercheval was best known as Texas businessman Cliff Barnes, rival of Larry Hagman’s J.R. Ewing, on the CBS prime-time soap opera Dallas. Kercheval and Hagman were the only actors to appear on the show throughout its entire run, from 1978 to 1991. Kercheval also appeared in TNT’s 2012-2014 reboot of the series.

Before, during, and after Dallas, Kercheval appeared on a number of different television shows, including The Defenders, The Secret Storm, Search for Tomorrow, Kojak, CHiPs, Starsky and Hutch, Trapper John, M.D., The Love Boat, Matlock, Highway to Heaven, L.A. Law, Murder, She Wrote, Walker, Texas Ranger, ER, and Diagnosis Murder.

Kercheval died April 21, 2019, in Clinton, Indiana. He was 83.