Who Is Dallas's New Bad Boy Josh Henderson?

There was a time back in the 1980s when the CBS hit show Dallas was busy making stars out of such television legends as Larry Hagman, 80, and Linda Gray, 71, and now there’s a new generation of savvy oil barons just waiting to become household names on TNT’s continuation of the famous Ewing saga. Josh Henderson, 30, heads up the new cast, playing the old J.R.’s equally treacherous son, John Ross Ewing III.

The new Ewing is described as the spitting image of his scheming, greedy, and venal dad, who famously said, “Revenge is the single most satisfying feeling in the world.” The character is determined to “undermine his grandmother’s legacy by drilling for oil on Ewing land,” according to Zap2It.

Henderson, a Dallas native, landed the big role after a season-long stint in 2007 on Desperate Housewives, where he played Austin McCann, the hunky nephew of Nicollette Sheridan‘s character, Edie Britt. He also hit the new 90210 as Sean Cavanaugh and graced the big-screen flicks Yours, Mine and Ours and The Girl Next Door before heading back to his Dallas roots.

Though Henderson’s love life is kept pretty closely under wraps these days, he was most famously linked to pop star Ashlee Simpson, 27, who he dated for two years before calling it quits in 2003. The breakup was referenced in the first episode of the reality show, The Ashlee Simpson Show. Like his former lady love, Henderson has a pretty strong set of pipes himself. He was first put on the map by the singing group, Scene 23, which was one of the winners of the WB competition Popstars 2 in the fall of 2001. After the group disbanded, the Renaissance man chose to focus on his acting career.

You can catch Henderson as John Ross the younger beginning next summer on TNT.