Anyone
who watched the soap opera Guiding Light
in the early '80s would have noticed a young John
Wesley Shipp playing the gullible and
studly nice guy Kelly Nelson. "You'll probably
remember me running around in my Speedos singing
'You Needed Me' — that's where it all started,"
says Shipp, who more than a decade later fits more
comfortably into the role of Dawson's father, Mitch
Leery, on the WB's Dawson's Creek (Wednesdays,
8 P.M./ET).
After
appearing in several soap operas and winning two
Daytime Emmys (for As the World Turns andSanta
Barbara), Shipp was offered the title role
in CBS's short-lived comic book superhero series
The Flash (1990-91). The grueling experience
included 70-hour weeks, all-night shooting sessions
and a requirement to appear in nearly every scene.
"It was kind of a relief when it ended,"
says Shipp. "I think there's an inherent trap
in playing a superhero for too long: You get typecast."
Now,
at 43, he's playing a dad-although not an altogether
mature or stable one. In the show's risqué
storyline, Shipp and his on-screen wife (played
by Mary-Margaret Humes) experiment with open marriage.
"The last thing [creator/executive producer]
Kevin Williamson wanted was for these characters
to become the typical parents on a television
show for teens," says Shipp. "What I love
about the role is that the father-and-son relationship
often gets reversed." All of which is fine
with the unmarried, Norfolk, Virginia, native.
"[Playing a] hot-blooded parent helps you feel
like you haven't yet been put out to pasture,"
he jokes. "I remember turning to Mary-Margaret
and saying, 'Remember when we were the kids?'"
-Tom Samiljan
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