We missed John Wesley Shipp celebrating Pride

He was actually in the closet? Had no idea

Oh please. He was the least enthusiastic kisser with whom I've ever locked lips. You know how he earned the nickname "The Flash," don't you? He was caught with his pants down in a Times Square adult cinema.

He's not hot anymore.

I did him in the early 90s, great muscle ass and a very hot bottom. I did not know he was in the closet, he wasn't that afternoon when we hooked up.

Is he envious of Dawson siring all those babies?

Didn't he allegedly sleep with oompa loompa Dawson during the run of that terribly written teen soap?

Why oompa loompa , R6?

I remember watching Dawson's Creek as a teenager and wanting to fuck Dawson's dad SO BAD

I know there's always been lots of rumours of him and James van der Beek but I didn't know if he was confirmed as gay or not. Showing support for Pride is not coming out of the closet though.

He was beautiful in The Guiding Light soap opera, where I first saw in when I was in high school. Just stunning.

Many years later, I saw him in the 14th Street subway stop. Still beautiful

He's still a handsome man, and a very kind one.

I should know when I say this, the man enjoys a pinga in him, as it makes him cum.

Big Dolores Gray supporter.

I want John's pinga in me

r4

other posters in another thread said he was all top... interesting

He filled those Speedos

John is a lovely person. Not in the closet. He is Honest! Progressive. Kind!

I used to believe the JVDB rumors but now I think it was someone seeking revenge on JVDB for being a dick (and using JWS to add credulity to the rumor since many people knew he was gay).

But seriously, the idea of Dawson's hot muscle daddy pounding his hole.....so hot

While we look at John Wesley Shipp as openly gay, he has technically never said anything publicly.

He sired the Ford brothers

I don't think he was in the closet the last 20 years or so. He just didn't make a public announcement. He's just a regular guy who happens to be gay. He probably never felt the need to tell the world because it was not a big deal for him.

[Quote] He's just a regular guy who happens to be gay.

He's a musical theatre queen.

He's old now so who cares. Yes, he was "fine" in the day, but that day ended decades ago in a previous century

SO END IT.

End what? His life?

His father is a minister and the family is close to Cissy Houston and the Houston family

Does JVDB follow his Instagram?

Jonny Vanderbilt?

[quote] JVDB

J “V head” DB

He looked great in a speedo. Was that a clue?

Mmmm, Baby.

Just say "Dawson."

He's not famous enough for anyone to care if he was gay or straight. Maybe if he did a very public coming out, he would have had a better career now.

R29, Love that 80's hair!

and that gold chain around his neck - yummy!

Imagine that chain bouncing up and down, as he tops someone.

[quote] Maybe if he did a very public coming out, he would have had a better career now.

He is over 60, he has accomplished almost everything that he professionally wants to do, he could even retire and not work again. But he still gets acting jobs

It is up to him on what he wants to do, whether he wants to come out or not, up to him

He should just give an interview to Advocate, get it over with and live freely. But again it is his choice,

He's hot today.

R23 "end it" has been your answer on several threads.

Let me be the first to cordially invite you to eat huge piles of shit.

JWS came to Datalounge years ago and was very nice. No one asked him about JVDB, but he was upfront about being gay. He's not been famous enough in a long time to have to answer questions from the press about his sexuality, but he seems very out and open now. he also admits he's a huge Julie Andrews queen (there are fewer and fewer of those still around).

He's craggy faced, but he still has a tight square jaw, and he's still very much in shape.

JWS stopped here years ago (turned up in a Google search result I am guessing) said thanks to a few nice posters, then saw some of the more hateful things posted about him and left, never to return.

JWS was commenting on how on-line trolls can do a number on your self-esteem (as he mentioned that to Soap Opera Digest) - it was posted here, and JWS saw it and responded with a few posts

In case you missed it the first time. Man can't believe that was 8 years ago already, I remember him showing up well.

[quote] JWS was commenting on how on-line trolls can do a number on your self-esteem (as he mentioned that to Soap Opera Digest) - it was posted here, and JWS saw it and responded with a few posts

Here is the thread - "John Wesley Shipp 'LA Is Not Healthy For Your Self Esteem" - here is what he wrote

"Wow, what responses. Terrific Even the bitter hateful ones. Really funny...I can just see you there perched on your poison keyboards. Let me be clear on one point, however, for those of you who actually care: I have often said that LA is a place that attacks MY self-esteem in a very particular way ever since I first went out there in my 20's. No, it doesn't lessen as I get older, but it has always been there. Because, FOR ME, LA is much more about presentation and the outsides as opposed to any intrinsic worth or value one might possess residing just beneath the surface. Part of it has to do with the kind of people LA attracts and the desparate pace at which hopefuls are trying to xxxx their way up the food chain. And part of it is ALL THAT SUN and heat. Harder to conceal flaws if one is living in an xray machine.

I dig GOOGLE ALERTS. I would have missed all of this otherwise. And to those of you who have demonstrated the capacity to engage a topic and give it serious consideration, thank you for your insight! cheers, jws (p.s. where did this come from anyway?)"

Here is his second response

The only thing I want to clarify is what I ACTUALLY SAID. NOT that LA is UNHEALTHY for YOUR self esteem. I have no clue as to the nature of YOUR self esteem, whomever y'all are (and some of you are serious and kind, so thank you. The others? Hey, it's a bloodsport; I'm cool with that.) What I am accurately quoted by Danielle in that article is "I never felt comfortable in LA. It's the town that assaults MY self-esteem more than any place on Earth..." Entirely different, not a referendum on LA, rather a personal observation about my own insecurities; and since the interview--as much as some of you seem to hate it--was about me lol I didn't think the comment was misplaced. Who knew?

lol not even I have that much self-loathing. ("no one knows, they can never get that close, guesses at most, guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching." J.M. "Sweet Bird"....and another song lyric occurs: "You betta slow down, You don't know me"

What else while I'm here? that's all I had time to skim. Yes my immediate family all ended up in the Atlanta area and that's why I came herefor a year to check it out. Since I've had a busy year and dig my Atlanta agent sent down from the NYC office think I;ll try another. The plan always was to try a year and if I felt too isolated, move back to NYC where I lived for 14 years before LA Um...Billy Masters is actually a friend of mine so I doubt he would dis me about something he knows to be false. Oh and responses 48, 49, and this one are the only me's (how's that for narcissitic? knock yourselves out) seeing as how this thing sort of blew up. Totally random my seeing it and deciding to comment. Oh, you mean it's a GAY SITE???? Horrors! lol Is there some kind of verification in the type-set that differentiates erotic preference? Well, this has been an interesting exercise in what all the rules forbid: engaging in an open blog about yourself. Ohwell, that's a good thing about getting old and wizened lol you care less about the rules. Goodnight, ladies, gentlemen, and meangirls ;)

[Quote] p.s. where did this come from anyway?

What did he mean by that?

[quote] p.s. where did this come from anyway?

[quote] What did he mean by that?

He meant "Who started this thread?"

[Quote] Totally random my seeing it and deciding to comment. Oh, you mean it's a GAY SITE???? Horrors! lol Is there some kind of verification in the type-set that differentiates erotic preference?

This doesn't sound like he acknowledged being gay...

I don't know why r36 said that r44, it's not true.

His reply to 111 in that thread kinda gave himself away, but he was not "upfront" about it.

He is not hot, so who cares?

He is not hot, so who cares?

Elder gays will remember him as Douglas Cummings on ATWT, who stalked Kim "Toots" Hughes in a memorable story arc.

Thanking Julianne Moore...seriously.

Now's the time to make his move on Kerr Smith

R7 James has a large head and looks uncannily like a Oompa Loompa. It was such a thing even the character of Joshua Jackson, Pacey called Dawson Oompa Loompa in the show.

Interesting that JWS, James Van Der Beek & Kerr Smith were all on As The World Turns but at different times

This is the "As The World Turns" episode that won JWS the Emmy

Kim stumbled onto Doug Cummings shrine on her, as she discovers that he is her stalker

Was there actual a parody porn called Dawson’s Crack or was that just a joke from somewhere?

I dated a guy who dated him (before we met), in the late '80s in NYC, around his 'Safe Sex' and 'Tamara' days. He said John was amazing in bed. He used the word "thick" to describe his erect cock.

I want to see the movie where John plays a stripper

[quote] Was there actual a parody porn called Dawson’s Crack or was that just a joke from somewhere?

No, there was actually a gay porn video called that.

R56, you're thinking of Gregory Harrison in 'For Ladies Only.'

R58 No, I was thinking of "The Dirtiest Show in Town" but it may be that he doesn't *play* a stripper in the movie....he just strips! LOL

I suppose it's impossible to find the 1980 TV film "The Dirtiest Show in Town" directed by Tom Eyen for Showtime.

Which one is Johnny?

He was outed by some tabloid in the 70s or 80s. I remember because I was a young gayling and thought he was hot.

Good Shipp Lollitop.

That's him at the top? He looks so young! (and so skinny)

Was he the one Johnny Are You Queer was written about?

[quote] He used the word "thick" to describe his erect cock.

I'll be remembering that when I spray all over my bedsheets tonight thinking of that erect thickness.

....

Ah, R59, yes, 'Dirtiest Show...' is a wretched 'let's talk a lot in drafty lofts and at the gym, then go out to a nightclub and complain and then let's have group sex' - a very NYC '70s mess. The PR photos don't show Shipp. He was in the video version, shown on one of Showtime's 1980 first 'racy' programs. He has a long boring non-revealing hump session with a gal; lots of overdubbed 'interior' thoughts. He shows a moment of butt and a millisecond shot of his dick.

You can find a bootleg somewhere online. Mine is a bad resolution.

Was he ever associated with Victor Garber? They would have made a hot couple.

Victor certainly loves stretching hairy holes open.

JWS was outed by the National Enquirer in 1991 while he was starring in The Flash. He was one of the first major stars that the Enquirer outed. Oh, they'd certainly hinted at other stars being gay many times before, but they directly outed JWS at a time when he was especially vulnerable since he was the star of a TV show, playing the title character.

Outing was still a relatively new thing in 1991. JWS never publicly addressed it, but it seems to have affected his career. After the Flash was canceled after just one season, he went back to soaps for year, playing a psycho, Carter Jones, on All My Children. Then he did guest star roles on various shows, including a short stint on Sisters, until finally being cast as the Dad on Dawson's Creek in 1998.

I hunted for the National Enquirer article, but was unable to find it. If anybody can turn it up, please post it.

R71 the article in the Enquirer didn't do a thing or create any scandal. Later that year JWS gave an interview to TV Guide to promote "The Flash" and he said he was looking forward to going on vacation with his "girlfriend" who he declined to reveal., This was 1991 so ...

Martin Ellis, "Santa Barbara"

Look at this picture of him with his father on Father's Day 2018. He is still absolutely gorgeous!

How was he outed in The Enquirer? Similar to Chad from Dr. Quinn? I think an ex of Chad's sold pix to the rag.

I wondered why he always wanted to fuck me in the ass.

I remember headline very clearly (I was a 20 year old Gayling back then)

"The Flash Is Gay!"

No pictures, no smoking gun just "sources" and "people close to JWS"

Which is why it didn't do any lasting damage, as it was all rumor with no concrete proof.

[quote]Which is why it didn't do any lasting damage, as it was all rumor with no concrete proof.

He didn't suffer any lasting career damage but in the early to mid 1990s, he wasn't getting the kind of jobs you would have expected someone who had just been the lead of a prime time series to get. Some in Hollywood seemed wary of casting him after the Enquirer outing.

It's interesting that it took Kevin Williamson, the openly gay creator of Dawon's Creek, hiring him for that series to really revitalize JWS's career.

Howard Stern would regularly refer to JWS as being gay on his show in the 1990s.

I think I remember reading on a recent thread that although his parents know he’s gay, he does not want to make a big public thing about it while they are still alive

[Quote] I think I remember reading on a recent thread that although his parents know he’s gay, he does not want to make a big public thing about it while they are still alive

I feel him.

R80, Well, JWS is 65 . . . so his announcement could be coming soon.

I think he's just a private person. His father is a minister and he's very Mr. Social Justice.

It could be he doesn't want to have his business out there for consumption.

[Quote] I think he's just a private person.

As am I.

[Quote] I think he's just a private person.

I used to be.

Lest we forget, one of the great moments in network TV:

...and in motion; SPANK!

Quite a different body from his twink '80s. How long did he do steroids?

Recent pics?

A role model.

Didn't he already come out?

Damn was JWS sexy in his day! Ass for days too. As a child born in the 80's, I missed his heyday entirely. Sure he was a decently handsome dad on Dawson's in the late 90's/early2000's, but I can hardly remember his role at all. I assume that few recognize him anymore these days and he can basically do what he wants in peace - the irony of a once prime-time leading man (back when that meant something due to so few channels) actually enjoying the fact that he is all but invisible in 2020.

R92 Eh, no one speaks of Joel Higgins anymore and he did daytime TV and had a few hit prime time shows as well. And he had a proclivity for wearing tight pants and had an ass to die for.

Good call, R93. I used to think JH was sexy as fuck back in the day.

In the early days of Datalounge, a poster tricked with him and described Shipp's asshole as having "the consistency of raw hamburger meat."

No! LOL

R95, I remeber that.

Lucky poster! (R95)

He got through AIDS by fisting?

I remember seeing him on Mitchell Rock's social media.

Gay Mitchell became known as a bottom, but he was actually versatile during his porn career, so not sure if that gives any clue.

[quote] Is he finally coming out of the closet at 64?!?!?

OP - He looks out of the closet all the time when he's on the town with his (openly gay) partner. This has been going on awhile; they're living together now and have two dogs.

Date night 2015.

Christmas with the family 2015 (sister and dad).

More fun April 2017.

If you go to a Flash event, you might see him adoringly looking on. (You can find photos of them with fans as well).

He looks like the cool gay grandpa we never got to have.

Thanks R87, that ass is an absolute SNACK

What I never got was how Dawson Leery’s parents were so attractive and Dawson himself was not. Strange casting.

James did grow into his looks eventually and wasn’t totally hideous as a youngster (cute 4-5 on a good day), but he wasn’t smoking like JWS & Mary-Margaret Humes.

[Quote] What I never got was how Dawson Leery’s parents were so attractive and Dawson himself was not. Strange casting.

Us too.

R25 he was named for John Wesley, Methodist church founder.

Is his chin known as Lantern?

When he dribbles guacamole, I guess it's known as the Green Lantern

He's a silver fox

So did he flash on The Flash? What was that about, I remember Greatest American Hero, a fav, but not that.

The Flash was about a gay discotheque in the late 70s, Rose.

Pank me, daddy!

His boyfriend's dad looks like the professor from Gilligan's Island.

Wow, he aged so well. He still looks great!

I agree

If you post photos of your French bulldog on Instagram you are announcing to the world that you are gay.

R119 In France are they just called a Bull Dogs?

His ass, back in the day, was one of the finest around, like Aaron Schock's today.

R119 That, and their concert tickets to go see Madonna's Madame X tour.

Without photoshop or filters.