Movies & TV / News
Dawson’s Creek & Varsity Blues Star James Van Der Beek Passes Away at 48
Image Credit: Viceland
Actor James Van Der Beek, best known as the eponymous Dawson Leery of the hit television series Dawson’s Creek, has sadly passed away. Van Der Beek passed away on Wednesday (Feb. 11) following a battle with colorectal cancer (via The Hollywood Reporter). The actor was 48.
Van Der Beek’s family issued a statement [see below] on his passing via Instagram, writing, “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now, we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend.”
The married father of six children previously announced in November 2024 that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer in August 2023, and he also revealed it was Stage 3.
Besides his breakout role in the hit teen drama, Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek also starred in the hit 1999 sports-themed dramedy, Varsity Blues, and the 2002 black comedy, The Rules of Attraction, based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel of the same name.
Van Der Beek also amusingly portrayed a fictionalized version of himself in the acclaimed, yet short-lived sitcom, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, for two seasons from 2012-13 on ABC. Some of his other television roles included the recurring character Adam Reese in One Tree Hill and a series regular in the NBC medical drama, Mercy, which lasted for one season.
He later appeared for two seasons in the CSI spinoff series CSI: Cyber and co-created the 2017 Viceland series, What Would Diplo Do?, where he also portrayed the character of DJ.
Van Der Beek made his big-screen debut portraying a bully in the 1995 coming-of-age drama, Angus. Some of his other roles, in which he once again portrayed himself, included appearances in 2001’s Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and in 2019’s Jay & Silent Bob Reboot. In animation, he also portrayed the voice of Pazu in Disney’s 2003 English dub of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky.
Van Der Beek is survived by his father, brother Jared, sister Juliana, his second wife, Kimberly, who he married in 2010, and their six children. In 2003, Van Der Beek married his first wife, actress Heather McComb. They later divorced in 2009.
Earlier in May, it was announced that the actor would appear as a recurring character in Elle, a legally blonde prequel in the works at Prime Video. The show has yet to debut on the streamer and received an early season two renewal in January. The show is slated to debut later in July.
