Clifford Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, is a fictional character from the popular American television series Dallas.

Cliff had a close relationship with his sister, Pamela (Victoria Principal) and hated that she married Bobby Ewing (Patrick Duffy), J.R.'s younger brother.

When Dallas began, Cliff worked for the state of Texas, building an impressive recorded reputation as investigator of corruption within the independent oil companies.

[2] During the second and third seasons, Cliff's career took an upward swing when he was appointed Chief of the Office of Land Management, an enormously powerful (fictional) state agency that coordinated and approved all ventures that affected the surface and geological texture of Texas land, including oil drilling permits.

In an attempt to lure Barnes out of this powerful position, J.R. Ewing enlisted attorney Alan Beam (Randolph Powell) in a scheme to form an exploratory funding committee (funds solely provided by J.R. Ewing) promoting Barnes as a candidate for the U.S. Congress.

After a dizzy spell sent Digger (Keenan Wynn) to the doctor, he was diagnosed as a carrier of neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder which he'd passed on to Cliff.

As neurofibromatosis poses a greater threat to infants than to adults, the doctor strongly advised them not to have children.

[3] Cliff was worried that John Ross III (Tyler Banks) might develop the potentially fatal disease, but Bobby and Pam convinced him to keep quiet.

During this time, Cliff also formed a "personal" relationship with Donna Culver (Susan Howard), who was Dave's most trusted advisor and the widow of Sam.

In the course of the fourth season, Cliff's mother, Rebecca Wentworth (Priscilla Pointer) made a dramatic reentry into his life.

Eventually Cliff asked for, and received, complete autonomy at Wentworth Tool & Die, but his fortunes took a dramatic downturn when he wasted Wentworth funds on a phony deal engineered by J.R.. Rebecca subsequently sacked him and this, coupled with Sue Ellen's decision to remarry J.R around the same time, drove Cliff to attempt suicide.

Armed with a new lease on life, and a new hatred for the Ewings, he became driven to succeed, and as a result, turned Barnes-Wentworth into a very successful company.

During the fifth season, Cliff and Sue Ellen became romantically involved again and he proposed marriage, however she turned him down and eventually remarried J.R. Cliff did find happiness again with aspiring singer Afton Cooper (Audrey Landers), the sister of Lucy Ewing's (Charlene Tilton) husband Mitch Cooper (Leigh McCloskey).

She left him in late 1986 and the union was headed for a divorce when Jamie was killed due to a fall while on a mountain climbing holiday.

It is notable that Cliff and Bobby appear to find mutual respect and liking only after Pamela has gone and their family ties are effectively severed.

Cliff is also shown at this time to be a loving and attentive uncle to Christopher (Joshua Harris), who is suffering from the absence of his mother.

As time went on his hatred for the Ewings (with the exception of J.R.) dissipated, as Cliff realized that his father was not blameless in regards to the Barnes-Ewing feud.

Whereas J.R. always dined in fine restaurants, wore a stylish Stetson, lived on Southfork and lavished his mistresses with generosity; Cliff often preferred take-out Chinese cuisine, wore cheap suits, lived in a condominium and assumed his romantic interests would clean his home.

While J.R. was smooth talking and charismatic, Cliff tended to speak before he thought and frequently stuck his foot in his mouth.

Initially making a deal with West Star head Carter McKay, he eventually sells the company to Bobby and Sue Ellen, effectively ending the feud with J.R. when he decides that reuniting with his family (Afton and his long-lost daughter Pamela) is more important than beating J.R.[5] Cliff reappeared in the 2012 continuation of the series, which picks up 20 years after the original series concluded and ignores the events of the two 1990s TV movies.

As her father lost his life trying to find oil on it and her brother trafficked drugs to purchase the land back from the Ewings, his revelation seemed to sway her.

He told Elena to make the Ewings pay for J.R.'s sins against her family and gave her proxy over the one-third share of Barnes Global he still owned in the company.