Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek has died aged 48 after a public two-year battle with colorectal cancer.
The actor’s loved ones confirmed his passing in an emotional Instagram post on Wednesday.
It read: ‘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.’
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lucy Hale, Christie Brinkley and Rumer Willis all hit the like button within minutes.
He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their six children.
Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek has died aged 48 after a public battle with colorectal cancer
Van Der Beek starred alongside Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams in the beloved series Dawson’s Creek, which ran for six seasons
The actor and his wife share daughters Olivia, 15, Annabel, 12, Emilia, nine, and Gwendolyn, seven, as well as sons Joshua, 13, and Jeremiah, four.
A GoFundMe page has been launched to help support Van Der Beek’s family with $500,000 as a starting ask. Kimberly wrote on her Insta Stories: ‘My friends created this link to support me and out children during this time. With gratitude and a broken heart.’
He announced in November 2024 that he had cancer.
‘There’s no playbook for how announce these things, but I’d planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon… to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms,’ he wrote on social media. ‘But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news.
‘I’ve been dealing with this privately until now, getting treatment and dialing in my overall health with greater focus than ever before. I’m in a good place and feeling strong. It’s been quite the initiation, and I’ll tell you more when I’m ready.
‘Apologies to all the people in my life who I’d planned on telling myself. Nothing about this process has occurred on my preferred timeline… But we roll with it, taking each surprise as a signpost, pointing us toward a greater destiny than we would have discovered without divine intervention. Please know that my family and I deeply appreciate all the love and support.’
Later Van Der Beek told People he was getting through the health ordeal with the ‘support of my incredible family.’
And he slowed down dramatically in the past two years: ‘The beauty of just taking things a little bit more slowly and prioritizing rest and really allowing that to be the job, I’m just on the journey,’ he during an interview on Today. The actor added, ‘It’s a process. It’ll probably be a process for the rest of my life.’
The star was often updated fans on social media about his cancer journey.
His family shared a heartbreaking post about his passing on Wednesday. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lucy Hale, Christie Brinkley and Rumer Willis all hit the like button within minutes
His last Instagram post was on January 25 where he looked slender but healthy. He was wishing his daughter and father a happy birthday
‘I feel a little bit better every month. It’s required more of me — more patience, more discipline,’ he said late last year when addressing his weight loss. ‘More strength than I knew I had. I knew I was strong, I didn’t know I was this strong,’ the star said in the emotional conversation.
His last Instagram post was on January 25 where he looked slender but healthy. He was wishing his daughter and father a happy birthday.
The star had moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas with his family in 2020 for a simpler life as they lived on a ranch.
Van Der Beek shot to fame in the 90s as Dawson’s Creek teen heartthrob Dawson Leery when he was 20 years old.
The drama ran for six seasons on the WB Network between 1998 and 2003 and also launched the careers of Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.
The actor worried fans when he looked noticeably thinner as he appeared virtually at a Dawson’s Creek reunion in September
Van Der Beek — who shares six kids with wife Kimberly — revealed his stage three colorectal cancer diagnosis in November 2024; Pictured with his wife and kids in an Instagram snap
On the show, Katie portrayed Dawson’s childhood love, Joey Potter, while Joshua played their other friend and Joey’s true love, Pacey Witter. Michelle completed the core group as the rebellious Jen Lindley.
In his early days, Van Der Beek wasn’t prepared for the level of fame that came with playing the lead role in the high school drama.
‘Getting recognized is something that took me a long time… I had a big learning curve on it,’ he told People in 2024.
‘It was a different interaction back then. Now, it’s a lot more grown-up, and back then, I was so tortured about it because I loved being an observer and a fly on the wall and having random conversations with people.
‘I remember being so broken up about the fact that those random conversations or random acts of kindness were now taken away because there was this thing called “celebrity” in between me and somebody else, and it became the center of attention.’
One of his last red carpet appearances was at the Los Angeles premiere of the series Overcompensating at Hollywood Palladium on May 14, 2025
He also starred on the sitcom Apartment 23 with Eric Andre as Mark, Michael Blaiklock as Eli, Dreama Walker as June, Krysten Ritter as Chloe and James as himself
And he competed on Dancing With The Stars in 2019 with Emma Slater
Despite having to overcome dealing with global fame, Van Der Beek ultimately treasured his time on Dawson’s Creek.
In recent years too, he very much delighted in reconnecting with his former cast mates, and in August 2025, it was announced that he and the cast would be reuniting for a live reading of the show’s pilot episode.
The celebration was a one-night-only charity event to raise money for the nonprofit F Cancer and for Van Der Beek amid his cancer journey.
Days before the event was due to take place, however, Van Der Beek was devastated to announce that he had to pull out of the appearance due to illness.
Expressing his disappointment in a pre-recorded video which played on the night, he told fans: ‘I have been looking forward to this night for months and months ever since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together.
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 on doctor’s orders.
He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.
He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.
He earned a scholarship to New Jersey´s Drew University but left school early when he got Dawson´s Creek.
In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his ‘selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,’ the university said.
His other notable film roles are in 2001’s Texas Rangers, 2002’s Rules Of Attraction, 2006’s The Plague, 2007’s Final Draft, 2013’s Labor Day, 2017’s Downsizing and 2020’s Bad Hair.
He also popped up on the TV shows One Tree Hill, Mercy, Law & Order: SVU, How I Met Your Mother, Friends With Better Lives, CSI: Cyber, Pose, Vampirina and Overcompensating.
The star’s next role is in the TV series Elle, a version of Legally Blonde, starring Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods.
