James Van Der Beek, a heartthrob who starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d and in later years mocking his own hunky persona, has died. He was 48.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur 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,\u201d said a statement from the actor\u2019s family posted on Instagram. \u201cFor now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother and friend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Der Beek revealed in 2024 that he was being treated for colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n
Van Der Beek made a surprise video appearance in September at a \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d reunion charity event in New York City after previously dropping out due to illness.<\/p>\n
He appeared projected onstage at the Richard Rodgers Theatre during a live reading of the show\u2019s pilot episode to benefit F Cancer and Van Der Beek. Lin-Manuel Miranda subbed for him on stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you to every single person here,\u201d Van Der Beek said.<\/p>\n
Forever tied to \u2018Dawson\u2019s Creek\u2019<\/p>\n
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie \u201cVarsity Blues\u201d and on TV in \u201cCSI: Cyber\u201d as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek,\u201d which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.<\/p>\n
The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, than 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.<\/p>\n
With Paula Cole\u2019s \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Wait,\u201d as its moody theme song, \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile James\u2019 legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,\u201d Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: \u201cThis is just beyond devastating news.\u201d Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.<\/p>\n
The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes\u2019 character climbed through Dawson\u2019s bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like \u201cEuphoria\u201d and \u201cSex Education\u201d owe a debt to \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek.\u201d<\/p>\n
Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha\u2019s \u201cBlow\u201d music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that \u2018Dawson\u2019s Creek\u2019 was,\u201d he told Vulture in 2013. \u201cIt ran for so long. That\u2019s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it\u2019s natural that they associate you with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A popular GIF and \u2018Varsity Blues\u2019<\/p>\n
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show\u2019s third season became a GIF. Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it\u2019s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,\u201d Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: \u201cAll of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.\u201d (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)<\/p>\n
While still on \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek,\u201d Van Der Beek hosted \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d \u2014 the musical guest was Everlast \u2014 and landed a plumb role in \u201cVarsity Blues,\u201d playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.<\/p>\n
Van Der Beek\u2019s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want your life,\u201d he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him \u201cconvincing and likable.\u201d<\/p>\n
After \u2018Dawson\u2019s Creek\u2019<\/p>\n
Some of his projects after \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d included co-creating and playing Wesley \u201cDiplo\u201d Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, \u201cWhat Would Diplo Do?\u201d In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC\u2019s \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on \u201cHow I Met Your Mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more you make fun of yourself and don\u2019t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,\u201d he told Vanity Fair in 2011. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like \u201cCriminal Minds,\u201d \u201cOne Tree Hill,\u201d and \u201cHow I Met Your Mother.\u201d He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama \u201cDon\u2019t Trust the B\u2014 in Apartment 23,\u201d and the short-lived \u201cCSI\u201d spinoff \u201cCSI: Cyber\u201d and CBS\u2019 \u201cFriends With Better Lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith\u2019s 2001 comedy \u201cJay and Silent Bob Strike Back\u201d and its 2019 sequel, \u201cJay and Silent Bob Reboot.\u201d He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of \u201cThe Rules of Attraction\u201d in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.<\/p>\n
In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on \u201cThe Masked Singer,\u201d after singing a cover of John Denver\u2019s \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d and \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.<\/p>\n
Early life as a theater kid<\/p>\n
Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of \u201cGrease.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in \u201cFinding the Sun\u201d by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of \u201cShenandoah\u201d at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.<\/p>\n
He earned a scholarship to New Jersey\u2019s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek.\u201d In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his \u201cselfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,\u201d the university said.<\/p>\n
Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d character: \u201cEdge is fleeting,\u201d she said, \u201cbut heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" James Van Der Beek, a heartthrob who starred in coming-of-age dramas at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}