High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Clifford "Cliff" Barnes, played by Ken Kercheval, was a character on the popular American television series Dallas. The Barnes family were competitors and sometimes enemies of the Ewing family. Cliff was the son of Willard "Digger" Barnes and Rebecca Barnes Wentworth. J.R. Ewing (played by Larry Hagman) was Cliff`s personal nemesis; Cliff and J.R. were the only two characters to appear throughout the entire run of the series.