John Wesley Shipp portrayed Barry Allen/The Flash in the show The Flash including the TV movie and The Flash II: Revenge of the Trickster. He also plays Henry Allen and Jay Garrick in the 2014 The Flash series.
Significant roles[]
- Blanchard Lovelace and Eddie Ford in One Life to Live (1989-2012)
- Barry Allen in The Flash (1990-1991)
- Officer Roy Larson in NYPD Blue (1994)
- Gunnery Sergeant Granger in JAG (1995-2004)
- Mitch Leery in Dawson's Creek (1998-2001)
- Jim Carson in Road Rage (1999)
- Jim Bratchett in Second to Die (2002)
- Michael Jones in Palmetto Pointe (2005)
- Chris Conroy in The Closer (2007)
- Barrington Freeman in Karma Police (2008)
- Professor Zoom (voice) in Batman: Brave and the Bold (2010)
- Henry Allen in The Flash (2014)
Quotes[]
- "They made an offer. They called my agent and said they wanted to talk. When I heard about it, people were saying ‘Jay Garrick! Jay Garrick! Jay Garrick!’ I thought ‘Yeah, I guess a mentor figure.’ I thought that was pretty limited. Then I heard about Geoff Johns reboot where he reimagined the Allen family and the fact that [the father is imprisoned, convicted wrongfully, for killing his wife. I thought ‘Wait a minute! That’s the character!’"
- "He is very real in his work. Very truthful. He’s invested, and sincere is just a good word for him. After having worked with him in the pilot, I know just how good of an actor he really is. How much depth there is. It’s a pilot that has a lot of depth. It has a lot of flash and dazzle, but then there’s emotional depth."
- "I don’t know what I can say without giving stuff away! All I can say, if people were disappointed that I’m not playing Jay Garrick because they wanted to see the baton passed, they’re going to get that. It’s awfully effective."
- "I figured Jay is my version of Barry, 25 years later, essentially. So I went back and I watched a couple of episodes of the 1990/91 version to kind of remind myself what I did. He is much more reminiscent of my Barry Allen from 25 years ago than my Henry Allen. I went back and I was amazed how much attitude my Barry Allen had in some situations. I went back and I picked up that thread and I brought it forward 25 years, and tried to weave it in. I think that's fun for the audience, too -- that they will see elements of my Barry Allen in my Jay Garrick."
- "Grant Gustin's Barry Allen is the speedster of the show, so everything is discussed in terms of how it affects Grant's Barry. When the iron mask comes off, and he sees essentially his dad, that's kind of like a one-two punch because it's his dad but it's not. If the iron mask comes off and it was Henry by another name, what would be the interest in that? In conjunction with Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, we wanted to make Jay very different from Henry."
- "When Grant and I were running lines and I was being Jay, he just put his head down and started laughing. I said 'What's up?' and he said 'It is so cool watching you play this'."
- "I’ve had a blast setting the template for Jay and making sure that his temperature is almost the polar opposite of Henry. Henry’s very warm, very emotionally invested in Barry and Barry’s well being. With Jay, it’s more like, “Okay, I’m the keeper of the Speed Force, you’re a new Flash, what are you doing? Yeah, I look like your dad, sorry about that. Big boy rules. So you want to be a superhero?” And if he sees something about to happen that he thinks might have negative circumstances, of course that raises the question in what ways would Jay intervene? In what ways would Barry go to Jay for advice? In those moments, we see two completely different characters relating to each other. I mean, Grant and I had to learn each other all over again from different character perspectives, which is a trip. We just started laughing sometimes, because it’s so different. Jay’s reactions to Barry are so different than the way Henry would react to Barry that Grant just starts laughing sometimes."
- "Well, he’s real concerned about it. He’s very concerned about the decisions that Barry is making. He’s very concerned about how that will reflect on his legacy as the guardian of the Speed Force, which is how Jay seems himself, the original speedster, the original Flash. He’s very concerned about what Barry may or may not know about what he’s about to do, and when that happens, Jay is going to intervene."