John Wesley Shipp

John Wesley Shipp is an American actor best known as the Barry Allen aka The Flash in CBS’ 1990 show of the same name. He also played Mitch Leery, the title character’s father on the television drama Dawson’s Creek from 1998 to 2001 and 212 roles in several daytime soap operas. Among his daytime roles, Shipp is probably best known as Kelly Nelson on Guiding Light from February 5, 1980 to November 6, 1984 and as Douglas Cummings on As the World Turns from April 17, 1985 to June 2, 1986, which earned him his first Daytime Emmy.

He also played Martin Ellis on Santa Barbara in 1987 (for which he won his second Daytime Emmy), Blanchard Lovelace on One Life to Live in 1989, and Carter Jones on All My Children in 1992. For his work on ATWT, he won a supporting actor Emmy at the 13th Daytime Emmy Awards in 1986. He played a peeper on an episode of Fantasy Island. He played the title role of Barry Allen/The Flash in CBS’s The Flash in the 1990-1991 season and was Lucky on NBC’s Sisters in 1994 and 1995. In 2010, Shipp got involved with the Flash again by voicing the evil character “The Reverse-Flash” in an episode of the animated series Batman: Brave and the Bold.

Shipp co-starred in a feature film that was shot entirely in Geelong, Australia called The Ninja. He played Detective Matthew Reynolds. The film started shooting in early 2009 and wrapped up in May. His co-stars were Rob Baard, Tania Zaetta, Roger Cross, John Schneider and Jeremy Kewley.

In November 2010, Shipp returned to One Life to Live in the short-term role of Eddie Ford. The popular, but villainous character was killed off in a murder mystery in mid-December. He taped flashback scenes of Eddie’s murder in February 2011, which aired in early April, revealing the killer’s identity. He also taped newly-created flashback scenes involving the backstory of the relationship involving Eddie’s middle son James and his former girlfriend Dee Dee Forbes and how James broke up with Dee Dee, stole money from Eddie and his arrival in Llanview to be near his mother Inez and two brothers, Bobby and Nate. John made his final appearance during the soap’s final week in January 2012 (the episode was taped on Veterans Day, 2011), when Eddie’s oldest son Robert had an out-of-body visit with his villainous father in Hell.

In the summer of 2011, he guest-starred on the Lifetime TV series Drop Dead Diva, playing the ex-husband of the character played by comedienne Kathy Griffin.

Shipp starred as Mr. Lahey in Teen Wolf in 2012.

In 2014, he began playing Barry Allen’s father, Henry, in the CW’s The Flash and last season, coming full circle, assumed the role of the Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick.