Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, in accordance with an announcement on his social media. He was 48 years previous.
“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek handed peacefully this morning,” the put up reads. “He met his ultimate days with braveness, religion, and charm. There may be a lot to share relating to his needs, love for humanity, and the sacredness of time. These days will come. For now we ask for peaceable privateness as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and pal.
Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his household had been shifting to the Austin space, and so they settled in Spicewood. He introduced his colorectal most cancers prognosis in 2024.
In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned a few of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson’s Creek to pay for his remedy.
The actor initially starred in coming-of-age dramas on the daybreak of the brand new millennium, taking pictures to fame enjoying the titular character in Dawson’s Creek and in later years parodied his personal hunky persona.
Perpetually tied to ‘Dawson’s Creek’A one-time theater child, Van Der Beek would star within the film Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Particular Agent Elijah Mundo, however was perpetually linked to Dawson’s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.
The collection adopted a bunch of highschool pals as they discovered about falling in love, creating actual friendships and discovering their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, performed 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg high quality.
With Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Need To Wait,” as its moody theme tune, Dawson’s Creek helped outline The WB as a haven for teenagers and younger adults who associated to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank discuss sexuality. And it made family names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.
“Whereas James’ legacy will all the time stay on, this can be a enormous loss to not simply your loved ones however the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: “That is simply past devastating information.” Others posting messages of mourning had been Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.
The present triggered a stir when one of many teenagers launched into a racy affair with a instructor 20 years his senior and when Holmes’ character climbed by way of Dawson’s bed room window and so they curled up collectively. Racier exhibits like Euphoria and Intercourse Training owe a debt to Dawson’s Creek.
Van Der Beek typically struggled to get out from below the shadow of the present however ultimately leaned into lampooning himself, like on Humorous Or Die movies and on Kesha’s “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and useless unicorns.
“It’s powerful to compete with one thing that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson’s Creek was,” he advised Vulture in 2013. “It ran for thus lengthy. That’s quite a lot of hours enjoying one character in entrance of individuals. So it’s pure that they affiliate you with that.”
A preferred GIF and Varsity BluesMore than a decade after the present went off the air, a scene on the finish of the present’s third season turned a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair together with his finest pal and burst into tears.
“It wasn’t scripted that I used to be speculated to cry; it was simply a kind of issues the place it’s a magical second and it simply occurs within the scene,” Van Der Beek advised Vainness Truthful. He appeared exasperated when he advised the Los Angeles Instances: “Hastily, six years of labor was boiled down to at least one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Humorous or Die and gave it a second life.)
Whereas nonetheless on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night time Dwell — the musical visitor was Everlast — and landed a plumb function in Varsity Blues, enjoying a second-string highschool quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an harm.
Van Der Beek’s character, Mox, seems to not be a soccer fanatic, preferring to learn Kurt Vonnegut and craving for the school training that may permit him to flee the jock mentality of his Texas city.
“I don’t need your life,” he screams at one level. Critic Roger Ebert known as him “convincing and likable.
After Dawson’s CreekSome of his initiatives after Dawson’s Creek included co-creating and enjoying Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a uninteresting however likable music producer within the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and performed a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mom.
“The extra you make enjoyable of your self and don’t attempt to go for any sort of respect, the extra folks appear to respect you,” he advised Vainness Truthful in 2011. “I’ve all the time been a clown trapped in a number one man’s physique.”
Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in exhibits like Prison Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mom. He performed himself with a crackpot depth within the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don’t Belief the B— in Residence 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS’ Associates With Higher Lives.
He’s additionally appeared in motion pictures akin to Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Again and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was within the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Guidelines of Attraction in 2002 reverse Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.
In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a canopy of John Denver’s “Take Me Dwelling, Nation Roads” and “I Had Some Assist” by Publish Malone and Morgan Wallen.
Adolescence as a theater kidVan Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, began appearing at 13 after struggling a concussion enjoying soccer that prevented him from enjoying for a yr. He landed the function of Danny Zuko in his faculty manufacturing of Grease.
He caught with theater, touchdown at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway function in Discovering the Solar by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of many sons in a revival of Shenandoah on the prestigious Goodspeed Opera Home in his house state.
He earned a scholarship to New Jersey’s Drew College however left faculty early when he was solid in Dawson’s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to just accept an honorary diploma for his “selfless service and exemplary dedication to the mission of Drew,” the college stated.
Drew College President Hilary Hyperlink welcomed Van Der Beek with a preferred quote from his Dawson’s Creek character: “Edge is fleeting,” she stated, “however coronary heart lasts perpetually. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that coronary heart.”
He’s survived by his spouse, Kimberly, and 6 youngsters, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been established for the household.
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AP Music Author Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.
