Ken Kercheval

Ken Kercheval
Ken Kercheval
General Information:
Series/character information
Appeared on/in:	I Still Dream of Jeannie
Character played/ Appered as:	Mr. Simpson, T.J.'s guidance counselor

Ken Kercheval (born 15 July 1935) is the actor who played Cliff Barnes on the CBS-TV series Dallas; he has reprised his role in all of the subsequent made-for-TV movies, as well as the 2012 TNT Dallas revival series.

He appears in the 1991 NBC-TV movie I Still Dream of Jeannie as Mr. Simpson, the high school guidance counselor of T.J. Nelson, Jeannie and Tony's son.

Career

Kercheval trained under Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. Kercheval made his Broadway debut in the 1962 play Something About a Soldier. He appeared off-Broadway in the 1963 Kurt Weill revue From Berlin to Broadway, and can be heard on the cast recording. Additional theatre credits include The Apple Tree, Cabaret (replacing Bert Convy as Cliff), and Here's Where I Belong. In 1966, he appeared as the title character in the original Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, co-starring with Herschel Bernardi, Maria Karnilova, Julia Migenes, Leonard Frey, and Pia Zadora.

He got his start on television in 1966, playing the part of Dr. Nick Hunter on Search for Tomorrow. His film credits include The Seven-Ups with Roy Scheider and Tony LoBianco plus F.I.S.T. with Sylvester Stallone.

Kercheval and Larry Hagman were the only Dallas cast members to stay with the series throughout its entire run, although Kercheval's character was only a recurring character during the first two seasons. He became a regular cast member in the 1979-1980 season. Kercheval reprised the role of Cliff Barnes in the 1996 Dallas reunion, J. R. Returns, and he appeared in the 2004 CBS reunion special. He also reprised the role again in episodes 3, 4, and 10 of the 2012 TNT Dallas TV series.

In 1991, he appeared in the reunion movie, I Still Dream of Jeannie, playing Mr. Simpson, a guidance counselor at Anthony "T.J." Nelson, Jr's high school and was the temporary master for Anthony's mother, Jeannie (Barbara Eden). This was because Larry Hagman, who played Tony Nelson, was not available to reprise his role, as he had not yet finished his run on Dallas. He also appeared as a ballroom dance teacher in the independent film, California Casanova.

In 2006, Kercheval appeared in a musical at Southampton's Mayflower Theatre and Plymouth's Theatre Royal in the performance of White Christmas playing The General. In 2007, he reprised his role at the Edinburgh Playhouse and the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. He reprised his role in Sunderland in 2010.

Kercheval recently finished filming a small role in the independent film Corrado, starring Tom Sizemore.