Life

Shipp was born in Norfolk, Virginia. His father was a farmer who returned to school when Shipp was young, and after attending the Seminary in Wake Forest, he became the pastor of a small church outside Wake Forest, North Carolina. Shipp later gave a keynote speech to the graduating class of Wake Forest Rolesville High School Class of 1999 to recount the tale of his father's attempts to integrate the community in the late 1960s.

Career

Shipp began his career with a regular role on the daytime soap opera Guiding Light, playing Dr. Kelly Nelson from 1980 to 1984. Shipp followed this with more roles in daytime, playing Douglas Cummings on As the World Turns from 1985 to 1986 (which earned him his first Daytime Emmy Award), and Martin Ellis on Santa Barbara in 1987 (for which he won his second Daytime Emmy Award), followed by 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 also had guest appearances on primetime series, such as playing a peeper on an episode of Fantasy Island in 1983.

Shipp won the title role of Barry Allen/The Flash in CBS's The Flash, which aired in the 1990-91 season. He followed this with the recurring role of Lucky on NBC's Sisters from 1994-95. Shipp also appeared on stage in the 1990s, starring in Erik Jendresen's The Killing of Michael Malloy in 1993. In 1998, he was cast as Mitch Leery, the father of the lead character Dawson, on The WB drama series Dawson's Creek; Shipp remained part of the series' main cast through its first four seasons, exiting in 2001.

In November 2010, Shipp returned to daytime in the short-term role of villainous Eddie Ford on One Life to Live, who was killed off in a murder mystery in mid-December. In the summer of 2011, he guest-starred on the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva, playing the ex-husband of the character played by comedian Kathy Griffin. Shipp filmed three episodes of the MTV series Teen Wolf which aired during the summer of 2012. Also in 2012, he starred in the independent film Hell and Mr. Fudge, with Mackenzie Astin and Eileen Davidson.

Shipp returned to involvement with The Flash in the 2010s. He was cast in a "mysterious" role on The CW's The Flash series in early 2014, which was later revealed to be the recurring role of Henry Allen, the father of titular character. In the second season finale of The Flash, Shipp played Jay Garrick, an alternate universe version of The Flash. He also provided the voice to the villain Professor Zoom ("The Reverse-Flash") in a 2010 episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter	Barney Bux
1994	Soft Deceit	John Hobart
2002	Second to Die	Jim Bratchett
2005	Starcrossed	Lane	Short film
2008	Karma Police	Barrington Freeman
2009	Port City	George
2009	Grotesque	Father Fahey	Short film
2010	Separation Anxiety	Sr. Palmer
2012	Hell and Mr. Fudge	Bennie Lee Fudge
2014	Sensory Perception	Lt. Thawne
2014	Golden Shoes	President of the United States
2016	The Sector	Stillwell	Completed
2016	Night Sweats	Nick Frankenthaler	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Dirtiest Show in Town		TV movie
1981-84	Guiding Light	Kelly Nelson
1983	Fantasy Island	Todd Skylar
1984	Summer Fantasy	Callahan	TV movie
1985-86	As the World Turns	Doug Cummings
1987	Santa Barbara	Martin Ellis
1989	One Life to Live	Blanchard Lovelace
1990-91	The Flash	Barry Allen / The Flash / Pollux	Lead role
1991	Baby of the Bride	Dennis	TV movie
1991	Danger Team	Spec	TV movie; Voice role
1992	All My Children	Carter Jones
1992	Human Target	Garner St. John
1994	NYPD Blue	Officer Roy Larson
1994	Golden Gate	Kenny Scanlon	TV movie
1994	Green Dolphin Beat	Terry Lattner	TV movie
1994-95	Sisters	Lucky Williams	Recurring role
1995	JAG	Gunnery Sergeant Granger
1996	Deadly Web	Dr. Stanton	TV movie
1996	Strangers	Jack
1997	Lost Treasure of Dos Santos	Jack	TV movie
1997	Soldier of Fortune, Inc.	Griffin
1998-2001	Dawson's Creek	Mitch Leery	Main role (seasons 1-4)
1999	Road Rage	Jim Carson	TV movie
2001	The Outer Limits	Coach Peter Shotwell
2004	JAG	Colonel Marcus Sutter
2005	Palmetto Pointe	Michael Jones
2006	CSI: NY	Patrick Quinn
2007	Christie's Revenge	Uncle Ray Colton	TV movie
2007	The Closer	Chris Conroy
2010	Batman: The Brave and the Bold	Professor Zoom	Voice role
2010-12	One Life to Live	Eddie Ford
2011	Drop Dead Diva	Doug Bailey
2012-13	Teen Wolf	Mr. Lahey
2014-present	The Flash	Henry Allen, Jay Garrick	Recurring role

Awards and nominations

At the 14th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1987, Shipp won the Outstanding Guest Performer Award (in a category that included Celeste Holm, Eileen Heckart and Terrance Mann) becoming the only actor with consecutive wins from two different daytime dramas.

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref
1986	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series	As the World Turns	Won
1987	Daytime Emmy Award	Outstanding Special Guest Performer in a Drama Series	Santa Barbara	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]