James Van Der BeekStar of Dawson’s CreekDies at 48

James Van Der Beekthe Dawson’s Creek star who enraptured a generation of young women as the titular character on the ’90s teen dramadied on Wednesday after a three-year long battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer. He was 48.

Van Der Beek’s wifeKimberly Van Der Beekannounced the news on Instagram. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” Kimberly wrote. “He met his final days with couragefaithand grace. There is much to share regarding his wisheslove for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husbandfathersonbrotherand friend.”

In 2023the actor revealed he had been diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer. In the time sinceVan Der Beek spoke publicly about his health battle and how it caused him to reevaluate his personal life with wife Kimberley and their six children: OliviaJoshuaAnnabelEmiliaGwendolynand Jeremiahwho range from ages 15 to four.

“It has been the hardest year of my life,” Van Der Beek said in a March 2025 video on Instagram to celebrate his 48th birthday. “When I was younger I used to define myself as an actorwhich was never really all that fulfilling. Then I became a husbandand that was much better. And then I became a fatherand that was the ultimate. I could define myself as a lovingcapablestrongsupportive husband and father and provider…then this year I had to look my own mortality in the eye. I had to come nose to nose with deathand all of those definitions I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.”

Unable to physically provide for his wife and childrenhe said he had to come to a different conclusion about himself: “I am worthy of God’s lovesimply because I exist.” He acknowledged that the spirituality of the comment might turn some people offso he shared a censored version of his hard-fought wisdom with his followers: “You are worthy of love. Because you are.”

A Connecticut native who discovered acting as a teenagerVan Der Beek was cast as Dawson Leerythe introspective high-school student ensnared in six seasons’ worth of love trianglesat the age of 20. The shift from unknown to heartthrob happened practically overnightwith women and teenagers mobbing him at malls just two weeks after he signed his first autograph. In the decades that followedVan Der Beek spoke about his difficulty processing the sudden onslaught of attention.

“My reaction to fame was to run away from it,” the actor told ABC in 2020. “I didn’t know what to do with recognizability.”

Even the show’s theme song—Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait”—seemed to have traumatized him. “If I was at karaoke and it started playing there’s a part of me—and I’m a fucking grown-ass man with four kids—that still wants to go hide under the table,” Van Der Beek told The Guardian in 2017. “I was at a pharmacy in Philadelphia and it came on and I immediately went into a weird panic. I think it’s tied to the pandemonium that accompanied thatfor which there was no off button. Walking around at that time was very tricky because one autograph could turn into a mob scene. So I walked around...in fear of teenage girls.”

Dawson’s Creekwhich debuted on the now-extinct channel WB and aired weekly before the deluge of streaming optionshit a cultural nerve with a generation of millennials. “I think if people want a perfect snapshot of what it was like to come of age in the ’90s and be a young person in that momentDawson’s will always be a time capsule of that,” said Greg Berlantia former showrunnerin a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly.

After Dawson’s Creek ended in 2003Van Der Beek had trouble shedding the character that Fatherly once called “the patron saint of pouty boys.” Before thatthe actor took his charms to the big screenstarring in the 1999 coming-of-age drama Varsity Blues. While filming the movieVan Der Beek said he asked his costar Jon Voight how he dealt with the constant attention and autograph seeking. “He said‘You have such a giftand that is the gift of being able to make somebody very happy by doing something very simple. All you have to do is sign that papergive them a little bit of timelook at themtalk to themand you’ll make them happy. What a gift that is.’ And that made it click for me.”

Roger Averywho directed Van Der Beek in 2002’s The Rules of Attractionspoke about what made the then-twentysomething actor so special: “He has something that a lot of the other actors didn’t havea built-in likeabilitykind of a puppy dog charisma.”

Van Der Beek reinvented his career in the 2010s by ironically leaning into the character he couldn’t shake. After a clip of Dawson “ugly crying” on the show went viralthe actor recreated it for a Funny or Die video and starred as an exaggerated version of himself on the TV comedy Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. “It turns out that James Van Der Beek is funny,” wrote the New York Times in 2017.

“The fun of having a set of expectations is subverting them,” he told the outlet. He had tried to escape the characterto no avail. “So part of the meta thing was just running toward it and playing with it.”

Van Der Beek collected a diverse resumedabbling in crime procedurals (Law & OrderCriminal MindsCSI: Cyber)reality competition series (Dancing with the Stars, where he was a semifinalist)and the Ryan Murphy-verse (Pose). Two years agothe same year he was diagnosed with cancerVan Der Beek began coming around to the idea of his Dawson’s Creek fame. It seemed that the public’s affection—which had seemed so overwhelming in his younger years—was a welcome source of support.

“The truth is I didn’t know what to do with fame for the longest [time]… because it took me a while to realize it wasn’t actually about me,” Van Der Beek wrote on Instagram to celebrate the show’s 25th anniversary. “While I used to feel like it created a weird separation from people…now I feel like it connects me in a way I really appreciate.”

In SeptemberVan Der Beek was forced to sit out a much-anticipated reunion of Dawson’s Creek because of health issues. The eventheld in New York’s Richard Rogers Theaterwas organized by his series costar Michelle Williams as a tribute to him and a benefit to cancer awareness. Costars WilliamsKatie Holmesand Joshua Jackson recreated the pilot episode of the series—with Lin Manuel-Miranda filling in as Dawson.

“Despite every effortI won’t get to be there,” a frail-looking Van Der Beek told audience members during a pretaped message. “I won’t get to stand on that stage and thank every soul in the theater for showing up for meand against cancerwhen I needed it most.”

His wife and six children appeared at the event in his place—with two of his daughters helping sing the show’s theme song onstage. In a social media post afterwardsHolmes wrote“Jamesyou got this. We got you. To everyone who supported us from the beginning and who continue to support James and his beautiful familywe thank you.”

Van Der Beekmeanwhilehad ended his Instagram post about the Dawson’s Creek’s 25th anniversary by writing: “Thank you to everyone I’ve encountered as a result of this strangewildrocket ship ride.”