John Wesley Shipp got his start as the suave soap doctor on
Guiding Light (1981) and never looked back. His career is all about soaps, starring in them, writing them, directing them:
Guiding Light, As the World Turns, All My Children, One Life to Live. Along the way, he won two daytime Emmies, appeared in dozens of shirtless and underwear shots, and became the first crush of many gay boys and heterosexual girls.
Through the years, you could also see him as the superhero
The Flash (1990-91), the boxer Lucky Williams on
Sisters (1994-95), the father of two gay teenage boys in
Starcrossed (2005), and the father of a teenage werewolf on
Teen Wolf (2012). Fans of the moody evening soap
Dawson's Creek know him for his three-year stint as the father of the moody titular character
(1999-2002). Although he's apparently gay in real life, there's no evidence to the often-heard fan contention that he dated his tv son (James Van Der Beek) or Pacey (
Joshua Jackson).
