Perry Cline

Perry Cline was a secondary antagonist in the 2012 television miniseries Hatfields & McCoys.

He was portrayed by Ronan Vibert.

A lawyer by trade, Cline was associated with one Randall McCoy. He had lost a great deal of money due after being outmanoeuvred by Devil Anse Hatfield. Cline saw an opportunity to take revenge on Devil Anse and his family through the feud between the two families and began working with McCoy against Hatfield.

Attracted to McCoy's daughter Roseanna, Cline suggested after she became pregnant by Johnse Hatfield that he and Roseanna quickly marry, and that the child could then be passed off as the product of a union between Cline and Roseanna. This idea was quickly shot down, and Roseanna was forced to leave the McCoy home.

As the feud intensified into actual violence, it was Cline who had the idea of hiring Bad Frank Phillips to arrest and/or kill the Hatfields. Randall for his part disapproved of Bad Frank's methods, but Cline had no moral hangups over the means that Bad Frank used in his pursuit of the Hatfields.

When Randall's wife Sally had to be sent to a sanatorium, she commented that the real reason for this was so that Randall could ride to hell with Cline. Cline approached Roseanna again to propose to her after the death of her daughter, wanting to take care of her. To the anguish of the McCoy family Roseanna herself collapsed and died.

After the Battle of the Grapevine, Cline was present to watch the hanging of Ellison "Cottontop" Mounts. Cline married some time after the hanging. In 1890 Cline encountered Bad Frank at a local tavern and introduced him to his new wife. The two got in to a fight after Bad Frank drunkingly implied that Cline liked his women young, as in underage. Bad Frank made the mistake of pulling his gun and was quickly shot to death.

Trivia

 * Depending on who is asked, the real Perry Cline was either an upstanding gentleman, educator, and legislator or he was a manipulative snake who manipulated the McCoys into escalating their feud against the Hatfields.