American actor
A dark and handsome 1980s soap hunk who made a bid for prime time success by embodying comic book superhero The Flash in "The Flash" . He made a bigger impact playing Dawson Leerys father on "Dawsons Creek" .
Lived in New York City to study acting following college and earned his first daytime claim to fame playing Dr. Kelly Nelson on "The Guiding Light" (1952) in 1980.
Won two consecutive daytime Emmy awards for his soap work -- the first for "As the World Turns" and the second for "Santa Barbara" .
He played Barry Allen / The Flash in "The Flash" and his father Henry Allen in "The Flash" .
His father was the Minister at Ridgecrest Baptist Church when he was attending High School in Wake Forest, NC. One night while some friends of his were visiting, gunshots were fired through the brick walls of his house. It is assumed that it was the KKK who fired the shots, because a few of those friends were African American. If you can find the old T.V. guide from around that time, John gave an interview where he talked about the incident.
Was able to land two Broadway roles, in the award-winning "Dancing at Lughnasa," and as Harvey Feirsteins love interest in "Safe Sex," his Broadway debut.
Has played two versions of the Flash: Barry Allen in the 90s TV series, and Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, in the 2015 series. Shipp also plays Barry Allens father, Henry Allen, in the latter show.
John was on the series sisters from 1994-95 playing the role of boxer "Lucky".
In 2015, Mr. Shipp won the Audioverse Award as Best Actor with a Leading Role in an Original, Short-Form, Serial Production for the radio drama Powder Burns in which he plays a blind sheriff
Mr. Shipp won a 2017 Voice Arts Award for his performance as The Blind Sheriff on the Western audio drama podcast "Powder Burns" (for Episode 6: Psalms for a Broken Man). He is a three-time nominee for the award. The show is the creation of writer/producer David A. Gregory (CBS "The Good Fight"). The two played father and son on ABCs "One Life to Live".
