James Van Der Beek was television’s original teenage dreamer.
The actor passed away on Wednesday at the age of 48 after a battle with colorectal cancer. His widow, Kimberly Van Der Beek, announced the news in a joint statement on Instagram, writing, “He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace.”
His biggest role was on “Dawson’s Creek,” which continued into his later years.
In a 2014 interview with National Geographic, Van Der Beek, who was born in Connecticut and spent his later years in Texas with his wife and six children, recalled how he began the ’90s by backpacking through Europe at age 19.
“I didn’t have enough money to stay in Paris for more than a day,” he explained.
By the end of the decade, he said, “I was in Paris promoting a TV show and I couldn’t walk down the street without my hat on because I was getting mangled.”
“Dawson’s Creek” was created by Kevin Williamson and aired on The WB for six seasons from 1998 to 2003. Set in the fictional town of Capeside, Massachusetts, this cult classic tells the story of sensitive aspiring filmmaker Dawson Lilley (Van Der Beek) and his friends, including Joey (Katie Holmes), Pacey (Joshua Jackson), and Jen (Michelle Williams).
“We were making this little show for this little network, and we never expected it to explode like this,” Williamson told the Post in June. “That cast was amazing. It’s hard to find a cast like that.”
The show averaged around 6 million viewers each week and was a star maker, with Van Der Beek, Jackson, Williams, Holmes, and Busy Philipps joining in later seasons.
“The ’90s were kind of crazy for me,” Van Der Beek told Nat Geo.
“I literally went from one day signing autographs for the first time in my life and thinking, ‘Wow, this is really cool!'” Two weeks later, he was mobbed by a bunch of girls at an event in Seattle. ”
He recalled an incident at an autograph session when he ran out of headshots and was overwhelmed by fans. “And they had to put me in the back of a police car to get me out of there.”
“As anyone who’s ever been famous among teenage girls can tell you, it can really get out of control,” he quipped. “I spent most of my twenties in extreme fear of gagging teenage girls.”
Van der Beek said “Dawson’s Creek” resonated with teens because “it didn’t care about how teens talked. It cared about how they felt.”
He said that on set, the cast would sometimes look at the script and marvel at it, joking, “Who speaks like that?”
“The answer is actually adults who have gone through 10 years of therapy. But it worked in a way because they gave voice to a lot of the awkwardness that you feel when you’re not a kid, but you’re not an adult, and you’re trying to figure it all out.”
On the big screen, Van Der Beek appeared in films such as Varsity Blues (1999) and Rules of Attraction (2002), which coincided with Dawson’s Creek, roles that cemented his status as a “heartthrob.”
“Varsity Blues” also starred Paul Walker, Jon Voight and Scott Caan, and his rebellious personality was a stark departure from the serious Dawson. In the film’s most famous scene, his character, Mox, yells at his father, “I don’t need your life!”
With this move, which would later become Van Der Beek’s signature move, he poked fun at his image. When the 2019 college admissions scandal that landed Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin in prison was dubbed “Varsity Blues,” the actor weighed in, tweeting, “If there was a concise phrase, these kids could have used it to tell their parents that they don’t want their path in life.”
On the small screen, Van Der Beek played his fictional self in the cult ABC sitcom Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, which ran from 2012 to 2013 and also starred Krysten Ritter, his biggest role since Dawson.
“I love James. We got along really well. We had so much fun together,” Ritter told Us Weekly in 2024.
Although his career never reached the heights of his ’90s heyday, he still made steady progress. He appeared in “One Tree Hill” in 2008, several episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” from 2008 to 2013, “CSI: Cyber” from 2015 to 2016, and “Pose” in 2018. In 2019, she also appeared on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“I think that’s probably the most important thing for actors, especially actors who have had some success in the past, is to just stay in the game,” he told Vulture magazine in 2013. “And that’s what Apartment 23 allowed me to do.”
Van der Beek told the show that “Dawson’s Creek” is a “cultural phenomenon” and it would be difficult for other roles to “match” it.
He was married to Party of Five actress Heather McComb from 2003 to 2010. After their breakup, he met Kimberly on a trip to Israel in 2009, and they married in 2010. The couple have six children: Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabelle, 12, Emilia, 9, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 4.
In the fall of 2020, the late actor and his family left Hollywood and moved to a ranch in Texas.
He later revealed that the reasons for the move were a death in the family, concerns about Kimberly’s health, and her departure from Season 28 of DWTS.
“In the past 10 months, we’ve had two late-term miscarriages. Each time @vanderkimberly was hospitalized. We spent the Christmas holidays thinking she had a tumor (the doctors were wrong, thankfully),” he wrote on Instagram. “I had the advantage of winning…and then my mother passed away.” These events, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, “led to dramatic changes in our lives, dreams, and priorities that led us here.”
The star had been suffering from cancer since August 2023, but announced his diagnosis in November 2024.
“I’ve been working on this issue mostly in secret for a while, but up until now I’ve felt that sharing things publicly has been helpful and cathartic,” he told People magazine that same month. “I got a lot of support by doing that, but more than that, I wanted to raise awareness.”
Months before his death, the actor auctioned off his memorabilia to help fund his battle with health and cycled back to “Dawson’s Creek.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he raised nearly $50,000.
“I’ve been storing these treasures for years, waiting for the right time to do something with them, and given life’s recent unexpected twists and turns, it’s clear that now is the time,” he told People in November.
His net worth was reported to be $3 million, and friends set up a GoFundMe at the time of his death. The page reads: “In the wake of this loss, Kimberly and her children face an uncertain future. James’ medical expenses and long battle with cancer have left the family short on funds.”
His former castmates also rallied around him in September, as the rest of the cast gathered at New York City’s Richard Rodgers Theater for a live table reading of the show’s 1998 pilot episode. This event benefited F Cancer and Van Der Beek himself.
He had to miss the event due to health issues, but in a video message he thanked “my angel Michelle Williams” for organizing the event and joked that Lin-Manuel Miranda, who attended in his place, was “up and coming.”
“Despite all my efforts…I can’t get there,” he said on Instagram. “I will never be able to stand on that stage and thank everyone in the theater for fighting for me and fighting cancer when I needed it most.”
During the show, Dawson’s idol Steven Spielberg also appeared to support Dawson in the form of a video message. “Dawson, you’ve made it. Maybe one day you’ll own Dawson’s closet,” the legendary coach said.
A tearful Phillips, 46, explained to her followers on Instagram that losing Van Der Beek was “heartbreaking for so many reasons.”
“But it was so nice to have Kimberly and all the kids there,” she added.
When his family attended the event, they received a standing ovation.
“And all the love that would have otherwise been directed toward me was directed toward my family,” he told Variety in December. “It was one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever witnessed. I’m really grateful to the fans for making it possible.”
