Born: July 15, 1935

Ken Kercheval couldn't always count on his acting income to keep groceries in his icebox during his early years in show business. During slack times, Kercheval took a wide variety of part-time jobs: encyclopedia salesman, airline reservation clerk, sewer-line dynamiter, even cemetery plot peddler. When times were good, Kercheval appeared on stage by night, and in such New York-based soap operas as Search for Tomorrow, The_Secret_Storm and How to Survive a Marriage. He was also a journeyman film actor, essaying supporting roles in such productions as Pretty_Poison (1968), The Seven Ups (1971) and Network (1976). Beginning in 1978, Kercheval played lawyer Cliff Barnes, the long-suffering brother-in-law of Bobby Ewing (Patrick_Duffy) on TV's Dallas. Evidently Barnes' retainer was generous enough for him to ignore the endless humiliations doled out by the shifty J. R. Ewing (Larry_Hagman), inasmuch as Kercheval and Hagman were the only Dallas regulars to appear continuously until the series' cancellation. During Dallas' run, Ken Kercheval occasionally moonlighted in made-for-TV films, notably in the role of Buffalo Bill in 1984's Calamity_Jane. Hal Erickson, Rovi

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