Van Der Beek told everyone about his cancer diagnosis in November 2024.
James Van Der Beek in 'Varsity Blues' and 'Dawson's Creek'
Remembering James Van Der Beek: A Career In Photos
James Van Der Beek death tributes
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chad Michael Murray, Julie Plec & More Mourn James Van Der Beek: "A Generational Icon"
The family wrote on Instagram, "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."
Van Der Beek said in November that he was selling memorabilia from Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues to help cover costs during his cancer treatment.
Two months earlier, he had canceled a one-night Dawson's Creek reunion to support F Cancer and Van der Beek. Lin-Manuel Miranda stepped in to take his place for the live stage reading of the show's pilot episode.
The actor was also set to play a recurring role as a mayoral candidate in Prime Video's upcoming Legally Blonde prequel series Elle.
James Van Der Beek's Final Projects: Role In Prime Video's 'Legally Blonde' Prequel Series, Unfinished Memoir
Born on March 8, 1977 in Cheshire, CT, Van Der Beek started his acting career at age 16.
He played Fergus off Broadway in Edward Albee's Finding the Sun, directed by Albee himself. Later, after starring in popular movies and TV shows, Van Der Beek said he was always "a theater kid" at heart.
But TV called him, and in 1997, he got the role of Dawson on Dawson's Creek.
The show helped launch the careers of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, and Michelle Williams.
Jackson, who auditioned for both Dawson and Pacey, once compared the audition process to The Hunger Games.
Dawson's Creek became a big hit, starting in January 1998 with the WB's highest-ever ratings.
It quickly became the top-rated show for teenage girls and the most popular program on The WB. It ran from 1998 to 2003 and was broadcast worldwide. Netflix picked it up in 2020, bringing it to a new generation of fans.
Van Der Beek recently said 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.'"
He was talking about the show's love triangle with drama, where Van Der Beek's character, Dawson, and Joshua Jackson's Pacey both tried to win over Joey (played by Holmes).
Dawson eventually stepped aside.
In 1999, as his TV career was taking off, Van Der Beek starred in the film Varsity Blues, a story about high school football.
The film also had Jon Voight, Amy Smart, Ali Larter, Scott Caan, and Paul Walker. Three years later, while he was at the height of his fame from Dawson, he acted in The Rules of Attraction, a comedy based on a book by Brett Easton Ellis. The cast included Shannyn Sossamon, Ian Somerhalder, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, and Kip Pardue. Although neither film was a huge hit at the time, both have become cult favorites and are remembered for capturing the feel of a specific time in history.
Van Der Beek has been in many projects over the years.
He played a main character alongside Patricia Arquette in the CBS series CSI: Cyber, which aired for two seasons in 2015 and 2016. He also played a version of himself in ABC's Don't Trust the B-- in Apartment 23, which had Krysten Ritter and ran from 2012 to 2014.
He also voiced a character named Boris Hauntley, who was the owner of a B&B and the father of the main character on Disney Channel's Vampirina.
He appeared in most of the show's episodes over three seasons from 2017 to 2021. Van Der Beek also had a recurring role as the main doctor on NBC's drama Mercy from 2009 to 2010 and played a DJ in the one-season Viceland comedy What Would Diplo Do? in 2017.
Van Der Beek's TV work also included hosting Saturday Night Live in 1999, playing a film director in Season 6 of One Tree Hill, and appearing in several TV movies.
He made guest appearances on shows like Modern Family, Walker, How I Met Your Mother, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Medium, Ugly Betty, Criminal Minds, Robot Chicken, and the soap opera All the World Turns.
His movie roles include Harvest, Bad Hair, Downsizing, Labor Day, Final Draft, and he played himself in Kevin James' movies Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back and Jay & Silent Bob Reboot.
He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their four daughters and two sons.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with the family's living costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment