Paul Hipp

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Paul Hipp
Born (1963-07-17) July 17, 1963
Philadelphia, United States
Years active 1987–present

Paul Hipp (born July 17, 1963, in Philadelphia) is an American actor, singer, songwriter and filmmaker.

Biography

Paul Hipp was born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Hipp left Pennsylvania for New York City immediately after high school, starting his career playing guitar and singing for tips on the streets of Greenwich Village while studying acting with legendary acting coach Mira Rostova and at HB Studio with William Hickey.

Paul soon found employment as a musician at various clubs in the Village, as well as earning acting roles in film. His made his debut on the silver screen in Abel Ferrara's China Girl, for which he also wrote the end-credit song "Midnight." Hipp went on to collaborate with Ferrara on several film and music projects, including: Bad Lieutenant, in which Hipp played Jesus Christ and co-wrote the end-credits song; Body Snatchers, which featured the song "I Want You Back"; and The Funeral, which saw Hipp co-starring with Christopher Walken, Isabella Rossellini, Benicio del Toro and Vincent Gallo.

Hipp then co-starred in the off-Broadway show A Minor Incident with legendary songwriter Carole King, who was making her stage debut in the play. The two collaborated on songs for her Capitol Records release City Streets, including the song "I Can't Stop Thinking About You", which Hipp co-wrote and plays guitar and performs backing vocals on. It was on stage with Carole King at London's Royal Albert Hall that Hipp was spotted by the producers of a new West End musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story.

Buddy opened to rave reviews on 12 October 1989, at The Victoria Palace Theater. Hipp's turn in the title role of Buddy Holly earned him a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical. The following year, Buddy at Broadway's Shubert Theater in New York, and Hipp was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance, as well as winning the Theater World Award for Best Broadway Debut.

After Buddy, Hipp appeared in the films Fathers & Sons, with Jeff Goldblum, and as Jesus Christ opposite Harvey Keitel in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, for which he also performed and co-wrote the title song, "Bad Lieutenant" with Ferrara. Hipp also appeared as Gene Vincent opposite Donal Logue (as Eddie Cochran) in the play Be-Bop-A-Lula at Hollywood's famed Theater/Theater before returning to the London stage for the 25th anniversary revival of Hair at the Old Vic, in the role of Berger.

Hipp returned to New York, and in 1995, he again teamed up with Abel Ferrara—this time for the film The Funeral costarring Christopher Walken, Isabella Rossellini, Benicio del Toro and Vincent Gallo. Later that year, director Larry Clark tapped Hipp to play Richard Johnson in his film Another Day In Paradise, alongside James Woods and Melanie Griffith.

Subsequent feature film roles include John Woo's Face Off, Waking The Dead with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly, More Dogs Than Bones (in which Hipp and Joe Mantegna play a pair of bungling hit men), and Joe Odom in Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, opposite Kevin Spacey, Jude Law, and John Cusack. TV roles included appearances on many shows and TV pilots. He was a series regular on NBC's Three Sisters, the short-lived ABC remake of Fantasy Island, starring Malcolm McDowell as Mr. Rourke, and an appearance in the 2002/2003 season finale/premiere of ER. In 2000, Hipp made his directorial debut with Death of a Dog, which stars Julie Kessler and Edie Falco and executive produced by Abel Ferrara. Hipp wrote both the script for the film, as well as the soundtrack and score.

In 2005 Paul played the Bert/Bertha Hagenbach on the second season of the HBO series Carnivàle. In 2006, Hipp was invited by Arianna Huffington to blog for her new venture called The Huffington Post, for which Hipp created satirical musical parodies like his take on Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" (with Dick Cheney singing about his hunting mishap) and the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" (a take-off of George W. Bush's "I’m the Decider" quote).[1] Many of the videos created for The Huffington Post became viral sensations and were picked up by major news outlets all over the country including Randi Rhodes' Air America broadcasts. While continuing with occasional parody, Hipp started writing and performing original "blogs"—instantly topical songs sung live in the kitchen to a laptop computer in simple fashion with acoustic guitar a la Woody Guthrie.

Hipp wrote and produced several songs sung by Hilary Duff for the John Cusack and Ben Kingsley vehicle War, Inc.. He co-starred in Two Tickets to Paradise (2006), along with writer/director D. B. Sweeney and John C. McGinley, and appeared in director Ernst Gossner's South of Pico (2007). He also co-starred in the Showtime pilot Manchild alongside Kevin Smith, John Corbett and James Purefoy. He was guest star on the TV shows Scrubs, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, The Closer, Without a Trace and Ugly Betty.

Hipp wrote and recorded an album of songs culled from his satirical work for The Huffington Post, called Blog of War. During the U.S. health care debate, a video clip of Hipp's song, We're Number 37 circulated widely via email, YouTube, and other social networking sites.[2] Paul had a recurring role in the F/X series Terriers. Last year he was reunited with Bad Lieutenant co-star Harvey Keitel for the gangster comedy The Last Godfather. He also reunited with director Abel Ferrara, who directed him and Willem Dafoe in 4:44 Last Day on Earth.

Paul is in his fourth season as Guitar slinging minister Reverend TimTom in the ABC's comedy The Middle. He is currently in post production on the Argentine-American comedy film No Somos Animales (originally titled Dictablanda), in which he costars with John Cusack. Hipp and Cusack also co-wrote the film with Kevin Morris and director Alejandro Agresti. Other film projects include his feature documentary Burn Out, which features appearances by John Cusack, Nick Nolte, Larry Clark, Laird Hamilton, and Malcolm McLaren.

Filmography

References

  1. ↑ Hipp, Paul. "Paul Hipp". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 December 2011. 
  2. ↑ Hipp, Paul (10 September 2009). "We're Number 37!". Huffington Post. Retrieved 14 December 2011. 
  3. ↑ Cusack, John (screenplay); Agresti, Alejandro (screenplay). "No Somos Animales (formerly titled 'Dictablanda')". IMDB. Retrieved 14 December 2011. 
  4. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (7 March 2011). "John Cusack to star in 'Dictablanda' Thesp also producing film thru his New Crime company". Variety (magazine). Retrieved 14 December 2011. "Alejandro Agresti ("The Lake House") directs from a script he co-wrote with Cusack, Morris and Paul Hipp, who co-stars." 

External links

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