James Van Der Beek death: Dawson’s Creek actor dies aged 48

James Van Der Beek, star of beloved teen drama Dawson’s Creek, has died aged 48, his family has announced.

His wife, Kimberly, said in an Instagram post: “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,” she continued.

In November 2024, the actor revealed that he had privately been receiving treatment for stage 3 colorectal cancer. Initially brushing off symptoms including irregular bowel movements, Van Der Beek assumed the change was down to his caffeine intake before he was diagnosed in the summer of 2023.

Following the news of his death, tributes from fans and peers have begun pouring in. “I’m so sad for your beautiful family,” Sarah Michelle Gellar commented on the Instagram post. “While James’ legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world. F*** Cancer.”

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“Sending love and light to your beautiful family,” Chad Michael Murray added. “James was a giant. We’re so so so sorry for what you’re going through. His words, art and humanity inspired all of us – he inspired us to be better in all ways. God bless you guys.”

Born in Cheshire, Connecticut, on 8 March 1977, Van Der Beek (whose name means “from the Creek” in Dutch) “never wanted to be an actor” and instead thought he’d be an athlete. But after getting a concussion aged 13, he was forced to cut his training short and took up drama instead.

He started acting aged 13 and played Reuben in his school’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and then Danny Zuko in Grease. Precocious in his determination, he insisted that his mother, Belinda, take him to New York to secure an agent aged 15.

He auditioned for Dawson’s Creek in 1997 and dropped out of Drew University once he secured the lead as Dawson Leery. The show was picked up by the WB Network and launched the careers of Van Der Beek and his co-stars Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, and Michelle Williams.

Dawson’s Creek became an instant success, portraying the angst and innocence of adolescence in a fictional Massachusetts town, and gripping young viewers with storylines including Dawson’s longstanding crush on Joey (Holmes).

The show aired for six seasons, 128 episodes, from 1998 to 2003. But Van Der Beek’s experience as a teen actor was a mixed bag, as he admitted in 2017 that hearing the show’s theme tune “I Don’t Want to Wait” by Paula Cole provoked an instant “weird panic”.

“I have a complicated relationship with that song,” he told The Guardian in 2017. “If I was at karaoke and it started playing there’s a part of me – and I’m a f***ing grown-ass man with four kids – that still wants to go hide under the table.”

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Van Der Beek married his first wife, Heather McComb, in 2003, before filing for divorce in 2009. On Live with Kelly and Mark in 2017, he said: “I got married very young”, and explained how his co-star Busy Philipps helped him through divorce.

During a spiritual trip to Israel, Van Der Beek says he had a “realisation” that he needed to find his “soulmate” to start a family. When he shared the revelation with a friend, his soon-to-be wife, Kimberley Brook, interrupted the discussion to ask the friend a question.

“I was annoyed. Who the hell was stepping all over my moment?” he recalled later. The pair began dating within weeks, and married a year later in a ceremony in Tel Aviv in 2010.

The couple had four daughters and two sons together, and Van Der Beek was open about the couple’s difficulties with miscarriages. In 2020, they announced they would be leaving Los Angeles to move to Texas.

He regularly praised the virtues and joys of fatherhood, describing it as “the craziest thing I’ve ever done” and “the thing that’s made me happiest”.

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He went on to continue a successful career in television, including roles in the main cast of Mercy, Law & Order, CSI: Cyber, Friends with Better Lives, the British sitcom Carters Get Rich, and Vamperina. Of his work in Carters Get Rich in 2017, he said: “When you think ‘British sitcom’, you don't think ‘James Van Der Beek’, huh? Well, I aim to change all that!”

He also played a fictionalised version of himself in Don’t Trust the B*** in Apartment 23. Van Der Beek was also noted for his roles in films, including Varsity Blues and The Rules of Attraction. The latter, a dark comedy involving sex and drugs and adapted from the novel by the “literary brat pack” writer Bret Easton Ellis, was seen as a departure in tone for the usually clean-cut actor.

He later admitted that after Dawson’s Creek, he had been too cautious, turning down roles in The Amityville Horror and Wedding Crashers, roles which eventually went on to help make the names of stars Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper respectively.

“That’s actually one that I kick myself over as well,” he told Vanity Fair about Cooper’s role. “I mean, everything works out, and I’m happy with where I’m at...”

He also had several guest appearances on TV shows like Ugly Betty, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and One Tree Hill, a cameo in Scary Movie and an appearance in Ke$ha’s “Blow” music video.

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In 2017, Van Der Beek wrote, produced, and starred in What Would Diplo Do?, a movie about the DJ, which debuted on Viceland to positive reviews and a 90 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

He also appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2019, eventually finishing in fifth place with professional dancer Emma Slater. He competed on season 13 of the US edition of The Masked Singer.

In his final months, he leaned into his Christian faith, as he remarked that cancer treatment had stripped him of his identity and brought him face to face with his own mortality.

“I had to come nose to nose with death,” he said in a video posted on Instagram for his birthday in March 2025. "And all those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me."

He sold signed Varsity Blues merchandise to raise funds for his own cancer treatment and the treatment of others.

He described the period as “the hardest year of my life,” feeling like "just a too skinny, weak guy, alone in an apartment with cancer … what am I?”

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However, he concluded: “I am worthy of God’s love simply because I exist. And if I’m worthy of God’s love, shouldn’t I also be worthy of my own?”

In September 2025, Michelle Williams organised a reunion of the Dawson’s Creek cast for a live charity reading of the first episode. The event raised money for the charity F Cancer. Van Der Beek had been due to take part, but was forced to withdraw due to “two stomach viruses”.

In the end, he appeared at the event via a video message, introducing his replacement Hamilton star and creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, and thanked fans for their support.

Despite Van Der Beek’s absence, his wife Kimberly and their six children flew out to New York City to attend, explaining on Instagram that it “was important to him we come!!”

“This night was so special to the whole family, and more importantly, like just feeling my husband fill the entire theater, and the love for him,” Kimberly said afterwards. “We’ll be unwinding this one for a while, but thank you for the love and support and for the prayers.”

Van Der Beek is survived by his wife and their six children, Olivia, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn, Joshua and Jeremiah.