Paul Hipp

Paul Hipp, born July 16, 1963, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and filmmaker. He grew up in Warminster before relocating to New York City, where he played guitar for tips in Greenwich Village while studying acting with coach Mira Rostova and at HB Studio under William Hickey.

Hipp's film career began when New York filmmaker Abel Ferrara attended one of his performances and cast him as Nino Valacci in China Girl. That role initiated a lasting professional relationship between the two, placing Hipp among a core group of Ferrara collaborators that includes Christopher Walken, Harvey Keitel, and Willem Dafoe. During production of China Girl, Hipp composed his first published song, "Midnight For You," which was used as the film's end credit theme. He subsequently co-starred in the off-Broadway production A Minor Incident alongside Carole King. Hipp performed "Midnight For You" for King, who later credited the song with motivating her return to recording. The two began writing together, with King joining Hipp at New York performances, and their collaboration produced songs for her Capitol Records album City Streets, including "I Can't Stop Thinking About You," on which Hipp served as co-writer, guitarist, and backing vocalist. A tour supporting the album featured Hipp performing the song onstage with King as a duet.

A performance alongside King at London's Royal Albert Hall brought Hipp to the attention of producers developing the West End musical Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. He auditioned and was cast in the title role. The production opened on October 12, 1989, at the Victoria Palace Theatre, and Hipp received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Musical. The following year, he brought the role to Broadway's Shubert Theater, earning a Tony Award nomination and winning the Theatre World Award in 1991.

Between and around his stage work, Hipp continued building a substantial film career. He appeared in Fathers & Sons opposite Jeff Goldblum and portrayed Jesus Christ opposite Harvey Keitel in Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, for which he also performed the title song alongside Ferrara. He played Gene Vincent opposite Donal Logue's Eddie Cochran in the stage production Be-Bop-A-Lula at Hollywood's Theater-Theater. He later returned to London for the 25th anniversary revival of Hair at the Old Vic, playing Berger opposite John Barrowman as Claude, after which he remained in London, living in Notting Hill and continuing to write and perform.

Subsequent film roles included John Woo's Face/Off, Waking the Dead, More Dogs Than Bones, in which he and Joe Mantegna played a pair of bungling hit men, and the role of Joe Odom in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Ferrara continued to direct him in later projects including 4:44 Last Day on Earth and the 2014 film Welcome to New York, for which Hipp contributed the opening and closing credit themes. He also co-starred in and co-wrote the Argentine-American film No Somos Animales.

On television, Hipp was a series regular on NBC's Three Sisters and had a recurring role in the FX series Terriers. In 2005 he played the circus performer Bert/Bertha Hagenbach in the second season of HBO's Carnivàle. He guest-starred on ER, Scrubs, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, The Closer, Without a Trace, and Ugly Betty, and co-starred in the Showtime pilot Manchild. From 2009 through 2018, he recurred on ABC's The Middle as guitar-playing minister Reverend Tim Tom. In 2000, Hipp made his directorial debut with the feature film Death of a Dog, which he also wrote, starring Julie Kessler and Edie Falco and executive produced by Ferrara. He wrote the script, soundtrack, and score for the film.

As a songwriter, Hipp wrote and produced songs performed by Hilary Duff for the film War, Inc. He also contributed satirical musical parodies to The Huffington Post, some of which were picked up by national news outlets, and later compiled that work into the album Blog of War, released in 2008. His song "We're Number 37" circulated widely on social media and led to an appearance on The Dylan Ratigan Show. Additional recorded releases include The Remote Distance in 2015, which featured a video for the single "Happy Birthday to Me" with Norman Lear, and Buenos Aires, also released in 2015, a collection of songs from and inspired by No Somos Animales. His album Sometimes I'm Rudy followed in 2017.