Updated Feb. 11, 2026, 2:46 p.m. ET
James Van Der Beek, the actor known best for embodying those formative, angsty teenage years in “Dawson’s Creek” and “Varsity Blues,” has died following a diagnosis with colorectal cancer. He was 48.
Van Der Beek’s death was announced with a post on the actor’s official Instagram page Wednesday, Feb. 11. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” a caption of a photo of the actor read.
“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,” the post said.
The actor was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August 2023 and shared his illness with the public in November 2024. He continued working, in spite of his health battle, appearing on shows like the CW’s “Walker” (2024) and Amazon Prime Video’s comedy “Overcompensating” (2025).
Van Der Beek also competed against fellow disguised celebrities on Fox’s “The Masked Singer” (2025) and signed on to Amazon Prime’s “Legally Blonde” prequel “Elle” as Dean Wilson, a school district superintendent and mayoral candidate.
He previously shared with USA TODAY that his diagnosis reinvigorated his love for his chosen profession.
“For a minute, I thought, ‘You know what? I don’t need acting. I don’t need it in the way that I did before,'” he said, during an interview in the summer of 2025. “I’m very, very happy just doing this here with my family. And then, when I got cancer, I realized I love to tell stories. Acting is actually a real passion. Writing is a real passion, and I need to feed that. So, I joke that I’m the only guy I know who got cancer and realized I need to work more.”
Van Der Beek is survived by his wife Kimberly, whom he wed in 2010, and their six children.
James Van Der Beek movies and TV shows, from ‘Dawson’s Creek’ to ‘Varsity Blues,’ made him a star
The Cheshire, Connecticut-native, born March 8, 1977, was “a very shy kid,” he told “Good Morning America” in 2020. “I never wanted to be an actor when I was a kid. I wanted to be an athlete.”
But in his early teens, Van Der Beek told the outlet, “I really fell in love with acting. … The only place I felt comfortable being the center of attention was on stage.”
And soon he found confidence in front of a camera, too. After appearing in an episode of Nickelodeon’s “Clarissa Explains It All” in 1993, Van Der Beek booked his first feature, “Angus” (1995), in which his character bullied an overweight teen. That year he also had a three-episode stint on the CBS soap “As the World Turns.”
Van Der Beek’s own world shifted dramatically when he landed the title role on The WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” (1998-2003), portraying the Spielberg-obsessed cinephile Dawson Leery. The beloved teen drama, which followed Dawson and his friends, Joey Potter (Katie Holmes), Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) and Jen Lindley (Michelle Williams) ran for six seasons.
When Entertainment Weekly reunited the cast in 2018 to mark the series’ 20th reunion, Van Der Beek revealed, “There was so much about Dawson that annoyed me. I love that he was sensitive, I love that he was very open and not trying to be a jock. So I love the vulnerability there, that was something I was kind of happy to be putting out. But the rest of it I found kind of annoying, to be honest with you.”
But he and his costars “had a lot of fun doing it,” the actor said. “We all gave it our all, which is why it was so exhausting to go through. I don’t think any of us even knew how to phone it in, even if we decided we wanted to.”
Van Der Beek was also immortalized as a teen thanks to “Varsity Blues” (1999). The star portrayed the film’s lead, Mox, a second-string quarterback called up after the team’s starting QB (Paul Walker) is injured. Mox longs to leave the football-obsessed (and fictitious) town of West Canaan, Texas, for an Ivy League education at Brown University. But first he has to stand up to his demanding football coach (Jon Voight) and father (Thomas F. Duffy), to whom he memorably declared, “I don’t want your life.”
After the end of “Creek” in 2003, Van Der Beek appeared on television series like CBS’ “Criminal Minds” (2007), ABC’s “Ugly Betty” (2007), the CW’s “One Tree Hill” (2008-09) and NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (2012) before playing a very Hollywood version of himself on ABC’s comedy “Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23” (2012-13).
He also appeared in FX’s “Pose” in 2018 and lent his voice to Disney Junior’s animated series “Vampirina” (2017-2021).
James Van Der Beek wife helped him through cancer journey
But his life encompassed more than just his time on screen. After filing for divorce from his first wife, actress Heather McComb, in 2009, Van Der Beek crossed paths with Kimberly Brook in Israel. Van Der Beek recounted their first meeting in a 2020 Instagram post celebrating the couple’s 10th wedding anniversary.
Traveling with friends in Israel, Van Der Beek decided, “I was done being single. I wanted a real relationship. A soul mate. Someone with whom I could build a family,” he posted on the social media site. “I was mid-revelation, rattling all this off to a friend of mine when a voice interrupted us, wanting to ask him a question. I was annoyed. Who the hell was stepping all over my moment? I turned around… it was (Kimberly). Three days later, I asked her what she was looking for in a relationship. Her answer: ‘I’m not looking for a relationship.’ Six months later we were living together. Two weeks after that we were pregnant, and almost exactly one year to the date after she’d first interrupted me… we were married.”
The couple would welcome Olivia in 2010, Joshua in 2012, Annabel in 2014, Emilia in 2016), Gwendolyn in 2018 and Jeremiah in 2021.
Van Der Beek got choked up when reflecting on Kimberly’s care for him amidst his cancer fight during a 2024 appearance on “Good Morning America.”
“She’s amazing,” Van Der Beek told anchor Robin Roberts. “She really taught me what unconditional love is. I’m someone who has always in the past tried to do everything for everybody and never asked for help myself, and this has put me in a position of having to ask for help and having to receive help and the beautiful blessing of that has been seeing how many people in my life have shown up.”
Van Der Beek had to pull out of a much-anticipated live reading of “Dawson’s Creek” pilot with costars Holmes, Jackson, Williams and others on Sept. 22, 2025, in New York City, in support of the actor and the F Cancer organization. The actor had been knocked out by “two stomach viruses,” he shared on Instagram.
“Despite every effort… I won’t get to be there,” he wrote before the event. “I won’t get to stand on that stage and thank every soul in the theater for showing up for me, and against cancer, when I needed it most.”
Kimberly and the couple’s six children attended the benefit on Van Der Beek’s behalf. They joined the cast to sing the drama’s classic theme song, Paula Cole’s “I Don’t Want to Wait.” Van Der Beek appeared via a recorded video, acknowledging “the best fans in the world.”
Van Der Beek told USA TODAY in August 2025 that his experience with cancer helped him love himself to his core. “I was forced to look at myself and say, ‘Well, what am I, if I’m just a too skinny guy alone in a room with cancer?'” he said. “And the conclusion that I came to, after some meditation, was I’m still worthy of love. I’m still worthy of God’s love, but I’m still worthy of self-love, just for existing. My conclusion is that I do believe we’re here to experience love − to connect to and to give and to receive love. But, in order to receive love, I think you have to have it for yourself first.”
