James Van Der Beek Dies at 48 After Cancer Battle – Remembering the DAWSON'S CREEK and VARSITY BLUES Star
It’s hard to process this one. James Van Der Beek, the actor who defined a generation as Dawson Leery on Dawson’s Creek and also cemented his place in late ‘90s pop culture with Varsity Blues, has died at 48 after a long battle with colorectal cancer. His family confirmed the heartbreaking news on social media Wednesday.
“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” the family wrote on Instagram. “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.”
He was so damn young. Way too young. He’s only a year older than I am, which puts things in perspective. For many of us who enjoyed his work, this news is so terribly sad.
Van Der Beek wasn’t just a TV heartthrob from the WB era. He was a trained actor who started early and took his craft seriously. Born March 8, 1977 in Cheshire, Connecticut, he made his professional debut at just 16 years old, playing Fergus in Edward Albee’s Finding the Sun off-Broadway, with Albee directing himself.
Even after headlining major shows and films, Van Der Beek would later say he was always “a theater kid” at heart.
Television changed everything in 1997 when he landed the lead in Dawson’s Creek, created by Kevin Williamson. The show quickly became a cultural phenomenon when it premiered in January 1998, pulling in the WB’s highest ratings ever at the time. He played a character that I very much related to.
It soon became the top-rated show among teenage girls and the network’s most popular series. The drama ran from 1998 to 2003 and was syndicated worldwide, finding new life in 2020 when Netflix introduced it to an entirely new generation.
The series also launched the careers of Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, and Michelle Williams. At the center of it all was Van Der Beek’s Dawson, the earnest, Spielberg-obsessed dreamer navigating friendship, first love, and heartbreak in the fictional town of Capeside. The show’s central love triangle between Dawson, Pacey, and Joey became the stuff of late ‘90s legend.
Van Der Beek once revealed that part of his inspiration for Dawson came from The Phantom of the Opera.
“Now, nobody in their right mind would ever draw a parallel between the two,” he joked, “but one very big similarity between Dawson and the Phantom of the Opera is that both of them were faced with the reality that the woman they loved truly loved somebody else and said: ‘Go to him. Go to him now before I change my mind.'”
That emotional maturity defined one of the show’s most pivotal arcs when Dawson stepped aside, allowing Joey to follow her heart.
As his TV fame exploded, Van Der Beek transitioned to film. In 1999, he starred in Varsity Blues, a high school football drama that became a defining movie of its era. The film also featured Jon Voight, Amy Smart, Ali Larter, Scott Caan, and Paul Walker. The movie might not have been awards bait, but it captured the energy and attitude of late ‘90s teen culture perfectly.
In 2002, at the height of his Dawson’s Creek fame, Van Der Beek took a darker turn in The Rules of Attraction, a sharp black comedy based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel. Acting alongside Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, and Kip Pardue, he showed he wasn’t interested in being boxed in as just the good guy from Capeside.
Neither film was a massive box office smash at the time, but both have since become cult favorites that reflect a very specific era in pop culture.
Over the years, Van Der Beek continued to work steadily in film and television, always willing to poke fun at his own image and evolve as an actor. Off-screen, he came across as thoughtful, grounded, and deeply devoted to his family.
For many fans, though, he’ll always be Dawson Leery standing on that dock, wrestling with love and ambition while dreaming of making movies.
James Van Der Beek’s career helped shape a generation of TV viewers and late ‘90s moviegoers. His performances captured teenage angst, vulnerability, and idealism in a way that felt real at the time and still resonates today.
48is far too young. He gave us characters that meant something, stories that stuck, and a piece of television history that won’t fade anytime soon.
Rest in peace, James.