Chess Henderson

Chess Henderson as BadBoy

**Chess Henderson** was a Canadian actor and dancer. He was the fourth person to play the character of BadBoy. Henderson portrayed BadBoy for several months in 2000, before being ousted under a suspicion of homosexuality. His orientation was later confirmed when he was infamously outed by the Toronto Sun.

## Early life

Chester Alan "Chess" Henderson was born October 5, 1972 in Westlock, Alberta. Henderson never fit in in the rural Alberta community he called home; his effeminate mannerisms and interest in dance made him a target of bullies in school and earned him the disapproval of his parents. Running away from home, he lived briefly in Edmonton before heading east to Toronto to try and make it as a dancer. He worked at Zellers before getting an internship with MuchMusic.

## Career as BadBoy

Despite still being in the closet, Henderson soon became a regular on the gay club scene in Toronto, where he became romantically involved with Roger Nielsen, a casting director for MuchMusic. Nielsen was able to land him an internship with the network, and his first on-screen appearance was in a bumper ad as a background dancer. After the chaos of the California Summer Love Beach Party incident and the abrupt firing of Joey Selfridge, MuchMusic needed a new BadBoy quickly, and Nielsen hastily promoted him. As BadBoy, he brought a new angle to the character by incorporating dance into the act, and while his patois accent left much to be desired, was generally well received as the character on television.

After only two and a half months on TV as BadBoy, Henderson suddenly disappeared, replaced by Armando Ferraro. Reasons for this were not announced publicly, nor was it remarked on at the time - especially since Ferraro was such a sensation - and he was not heard from again until the story broke in the Toronto Sun in the summer of 2001.

## Controversy

On August 12, 2001, the Toronto Sun published a lurid exposé of the circumstances behind Henderson's departure. In it they detailed how over the course of the few short months of his tenure, MuchMusic producers had become suspicious of his effeminate and flamboyant mannerisms. Wanting to avoid a "gay BadBoy," they hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on him, tapping his phone lines and inconspicuously tailing him whenever he left the house. Hauling him in front of the BadBoy's Choice showrunners, they played for him recorded phone calls to his lover Nielsen and showed the pictures that had been taken of him patronizing gay clubs in Toronto's Church-Wellesley district. He was told he had the choice to quit voluntarily or the material would be leaked to the press, and he departed quietly.

## Death

There was an uproar in the wake of the Sun story, especially in Toronto's gay community, both over the way MuchMusic producers had acted, but also whether it was appropriate for the Sun to out the still-in-the-closet Henderson. Humiliated by the media uproar and disowned by his conservative family, he was found dead in his apartment of an overdose of sleeping pills on September 9, 2001, shortly before his 29th birthday. His death was overshadowed in BadBoy news, however, by the death of Rick DeSanto two days later in the 9/11 attacks.