“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace,” his wife Kimberly wrote on Instagram.
Fans and fellow actors shared tributes on social media, recalling the influence he had on their lives and careers.
“While James’ legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,” Sarah Michelle Gellar wrote on social media.
A GoFundMe was launched to raise US$500,000 to help support Van Der Beek’s widow and six children. It raised more than US$200,000 less than an hour after being launched.
In 2024, Van Der Beek announced a colorectal cancer diagnosis after it was discovered during a routine colonoscopy the year before.
“I’ve been dealing with this privately until now, getting treatment and dialing in my overall health with greater focus than ever before,” he wrote on social media that year.
Van Der Beek continued to chronicle his fight with cancer on social media until his death.
A Connecticut native, Van Der Beek got his breakout role in the 1990s as Dawson Leery in “Dawson’s Creek,” alongside Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes.
The show centered on the love triangle between Leery, a wannabe filmmaker and hopeless romantic, and two of his best friends Joey Potter (Holmes) and Pacey Witter (Jackson).
“These characters speak very honestly about everything that 15-year-olds are waking up and dealing with every day – relationships, the opposite sex, parents, school, dreams, aspirations,” Van Der Beek said on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee in 1998, when the show premiered.
He continued in the role, which made him a teen heartthrob of the early 2000s, until the show concluded in 2003.
Outside of Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek had credits in more than 60 movies and television shows. Notable film roles include quarterback Mox in “Varsity Blues” in 1999 and drug dealer Sean Bateman in “The Rules of Attraction” in 2002. (Reuters)
