With a career that began with a stint in Daytime Dramas (and landed him two consecutive Emmy Award wins) appearances on Broadway, and morphed into roles in the most critically acclaimed primetime series of its time with Dawson's Creek, actor John Wesley Shipp has traveled the world meting his fans and is still most well known for originating the part of CSI investigator Barry Allen on the 1990 CBS adventure The Flash based on the DC Comics character.
He recently traveled to Peru as a guest to celebrate Día del Comic Festival 2018, the capital city of Lima’s own version of Comic-Con and received an overwhelming rock star reception, as more than 10,000 guests attended the event all eager to meet their hero and get a selfie with John. Among the multitude of events there were several Q&A sessions, one in particular was hosted outdoors. Over the weekend, John shook hands and answered questions about his time on The Flash. Most surprising to the actor was how deeply passionate his South American fans are about the genre and especially The Flash -- both versions of the series, his 1990 original and the contemporary reboot!
Lightning struck twice for Shipp when in 2014 he was invited to join the cast of The CW’s The Flash starring Grant Gustin in the role of the Scarlett Speedster. A proper spin-off to the network’s other hit Arrow that would soon inaugurate a primetime inundation of genre shows capitalizing on the DC universe of superheroes. John has had the unique experience of res-establishing himself within the mythology in the role of Henry Allen, the father of Barry Allen opposite Gustin, who is convicted of murdering his wife Nora and is incarcerated in Iron Heights Prison.
At the conclusion of the Second Season, in a turn of events no one (including Shipp himself) had seen coming, Henry became the latest victim of the villainous Zoom (Hunter Zoloman, a speedster from an alternate-Earth) who exacts a vendetta against Barry by hurting the ones he loves most, but in a mad twist the prisoner held captive in Zoom’s Earth-2 retreat was another speedster and a hero from Earth-3. That earth’s “Flash” in fact — the "real" Jay Garrick, and Henry Allen’s doppelgänger! When it had been leaked that Shipp as going to be appearing on the reboot, many fans had hoped that he'd been cast as the Golden Age hero; it looks like fans got their wish after all.
Shipp recently recurred again as Jay Garrick for Season Four’s speedster-heavy team-up episode “Enter Flashtime” written by series writer Sterling Gates which had Flash enlist the help of both Earth-2’s Jesse Quick (guest star Violett Beane) and Jay Garrick in order to keep a nuclear device from destroying Central City. The episode introduced a new super-power for our heroes and featured another glimpse into the enduring legacy of this iconic character. With the new season just weeks away from premiering, and the revelation that Barry and Iris will be joined by their future prodigy, their daughter also a speedster, the theme of legacy once again is being revisited. Could Jay play a role in Nora's training in Season 5?
Now in the running shoes of the veteran speedster, John Wesley Shipp is in the unique position of having portrayed the Golden Age version of The Flash, and his Silver Age counterpart, as well as the modern interpretation of the hero’s father Henry, and passing the baton not only into the worthy hands of Gustin, but also tipping his hat to the cinematic Flash played by Ezra Miller in the Justice League motion picture.Not to mention he also played his own worst enemy, the Reverse-Flash, in an episode of the animated series Batman: Brave and the Bold. It’s a legacy that Shipp is very proud to be a part of.
John Wesley Shipp will be making additional appearances through the summer and will be appearing next at Geek'd Con, in Shreveport, LA April 17 - 19 at the Shreveport Convention Cetner (geekdcon.com) and the Fan-X Salt Lake City Comic-Con in Salt Lake City, UT, Sept. 6 - 8 (fanxsaltlake.com). Visit website for convention and ticket information.