‘Dawson’s Creek’ star James Van Der Beek dies at age 48

James Van Der Beek, the actor finest recognized for starring within the teen TV drama “Dawson’s Creek” and movies together with “Varsity Blues,” has died. He was 48.

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek handed peacefully this morning. He met his last days with braveness, religion, and charm,” reads a be aware posted Wednesday on Van Der Beek’s Instagram page.

“There may be a lot to share concerning his needs, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. These days will come,” the assertion continued. “For now we ask for peaceable privateness as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and buddy.”

Van Der Beek revealed in a November 2024 Instagram publish that he’d been recognized with most cancers, stating that regardless of the prognosis he was “in a superb place and feeling robust.”

Later that month, the actor additional revealed to People that he was battling Stage 3 colorectal most cancers. Van Der Beek shared that he obtained the prognosis after a colonoscopy.

In December 2024, Van Der Beek joined “Good Morning America” to debate his mindset and emotional state throughout his ongoing battle with the illness.

“And thus started the full-time job of getting most cancers, signing up for all the assorted medical portals and getting on the cellphone with insurance coverage and creating appointments … I used to be not ready for simply how a lot of a full-time job that it truly is,” Van Der Beek stated.

“I will make modifications that I by no means would have made in any other case, that I will look again on in 30 years and say, ‘Thank god this occurred.’ So, what can I do proper now to be able to make that the case? And that is the way it was, about 90 p.c of the time,” he went on. “However 10 p.c of the time, I used to be a sobbing, terrified mess, which I really feel like is a fairly good proportion.”

Born March 8, 1977, in Cheshire, Connecticut, Van Der Beek started performing whereas in center faculty and made his skilled debut at age 16 in a 1993 off-Broadway manufacturing in New York Metropolis. He continued to look in varied novice {and professional} productions all through highschool and whereas attending New Jersey’s Drew College.

It was whereas he was a pupil at Drew that Van Der Beek in 1998 auditioned for and gained the title function of Dawson Leery in The WB community’s new present, “Dawson’s Creek.” Van Der Beek dropped out of Drew College to star within the present for the entire of its six-year run, reverse fellow solid members and future stars Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson.

“That was when life was at its craziest,” Van Der Beek mirrored about his time on the hit present in a 2020 interview with “Good Morning America.” “At 20 years outdated I acquired stupidly fortunate and located myself in a zeitgeist, cultural phenomenon TV present, and I used to be instantly well-known.”

Van Der Beek additionally admitted his sudden stardom was troublesome to deal with: “My response to fame was to run away from it,” he stated, although wanting again he stated he would inform his youthful self to “calm down, be grateful, take pleasure in it.”

Regardless of having already started a small movie profession with roles in movies just like the 1996 romantic drama “I Love You, I Love You Not,” which additionally starred Claire Danes, Julia Stiles and Jude Regulation, Van Der Beek’s “Dawson’s Creek” fame earned him the headlining function within the 1999 coming-of-age sports activities drama “Varsity Blues.” Van Der Beek’s character of Jonathan “Mox” Moxon, the backup quarterback on a small-town Texas highschool soccer group, stays the movie efficiency for which he is finest remembered. It additionally earned him one of the best breakout male efficiency award on the 1999 MTV Film Awards.

“It was a film I actually actually cared about, it was a task I actually cared about,” Van Der Beek told “Good Morning America.” “It was a task I actually needed to combat for. I needed to combat for that function, no one needed me for that function initially,” he stated.

The success of “Varsity Blues” led to roles in different movies, together with 2000’s horror movie send-up “Scary Film,” during which Van Der Beek made a cameo look as his “Dawson’s Creek” character, the 2001 Western “Texas Rangers,” and the 2002 darkish comedy “Guidelines of Attraction.” Later movie roles included the 2009 thriller “Formosa Betrayed,” 2013’s “Labor Day,” with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, and the 2019 comedy “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.”

But Van Der Beek remained a bigger small-screen presence, showing on dozens of hit TV exhibits through the years in starring or visitor roles, together with “How I Met Your Mom,” “Do not Belief the B—- in Residence 23,” “One Tree Hill,” “Regulation & Order: Particular Victims Unit,” “CSI: Cyber,” “Fashionable Household” and extra, in addition to offering the voice of Boris Hauntley on the Disney animated kids’s sequence “Vampirina.” Van Der Beek additionally positioned fifth on Season 28 of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” in 2019. In 2025, he was introduced as a recurring character on the “Legally Blonde” prequel sequence “Elle.”

In September 2025, the cast of “Dawson’s Creek” reunited for a one-night-only reside studying of the present’s pilot episode to boost cash for the nonprofit F Most cancers and for Van Der Beek. A abdomen virus prevented him from attending in individual – Tony-winner Lin-Manuel Miranda stepped into the function of Dawson Leery in Van Der Beek’s place – however he shared a video message during which he thanked those that attended and shared his disappointment for not being unable to “stand on that stage and thank each soul within the theater for displaying up for me, and in opposition to most cancers, once I wanted it most.”

Van Der Beek was married twice. He is survived by his spouse, movie producer Kimberly Van Der Beek, and their six kids.