Some actors spend years auditioning for a role that feels like it was built for them. Josh Henderson got the one that practically came with a cattle brand: the son of J.R. Ewing, on a show called Dallas, filmed in and around the city where he was born.
Henderson was born October 25, 1981, in Dallas. Texas cares because he was the young face of the 2012 revival of one of the state's most famous TV exports, playing John Ross Ewing III for all three of its seasons.
A Dallas birth, an Oklahoma childhood
Let's be straight about the geography. Wikipedia lists his birthplace as Dallas, and TMDb says the same. Wikipedia also says he grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and graduated from Memorial High School there. So he's a Dallas-born actor, not a lifelong Dallas kid, and I won't pretend otherwise.
His path to the screen started with music. In 2001 he competed on the second season of The WB's Popstars and ended up in the pop group Scene 23, which won that competition. When the group broke up, he turned to acting, according to TMDb.
Television, one role after another
The résumé fills in fast. He was a main cast member as PFC Bo "Texas" Rider Jr. in the FX series Over There in 2005. Then came ABC's Desperate Housewives, where he had a recurring role as Austin McCann, nephew of Edie Britt, across 2006 and 2007. He followed that with a few episodes of 90210 on The CW in 2008 and 2009.
A 2010 CW pilot called Betwixt never sold.
Back to Southfork
The Dallas revival premiered on TNT on June 13, 2012. The Ewings, in the show's own terms, are a wealthy Dallas oil family whose home is Southfork Ranch. Henderson's John Ross is the son of J.R. and Sue Ellen, and he is determined to start drilling for oil at Southfork. The show was filmed in and around Dallas, and Southfork Ranch is in Parker, Texas. For a show about the city's most famous fictional family, that's the right part of the world to point a camera. The original series, by contrast, was filmed mostly in Los Angeles.
The series ran 40 episodes over three seasons, ending September 22, 2014. Larry Hagman, the original J.R., died during the filming of season two. TNT announced in early October 2014 that it had "decided not to renew Dallas," and CBS News reported the news on October 6.
After that, Henderson was the male lead in the E! series The Arrangement, playing Kyle West for 20 episodes across two seasons, 2017 and 2018. He later appeared in All Rise in 2021 and 2022.
Your turn
There's something fitting about a Dallas-born actor ending up on that porch at Southfork. Did you watch the original, the revival, or both? Tell us in the comments which John Ross scene you remember best.
Photo: Joyce Costello, USAG Livorno Public Affairs., CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No comments yet