James Van Der Beek Of 'Dawson's Creek' Fame Dead At 48

Actor James Van Der Beek, known for his role on the WB show "Dawson's Creek," died Wednesday at age 48.

Van Der Beek's wife announced the actor's death on Instagram. He had been battling colorectal cancer.

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"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," Kimberly Van Der Beek wrote on Instagram.

As the title character in "Dawson's Creek," Van Der Beek combined vulnerability with All-American looks, in a show that became a cultural touchstone for a generation of teens in the 90s, launching the careers of stars like Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams and Katie Holmes.

The series followed a high school group of friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha's “Blow” music video, which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.

“It’s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that ‘Dawson’s Creek’ was,” he told Vulture in 2013. “It ran for so long. That’s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it’s natural that they associate you with that.”

Some of his projects after “Dawson’s Creek” include co-creating and playing Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, “What Would Diplo Do?” In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on “How I Met Your Mother.”

“The more you make fun of yourself and don’t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,” he told Vanity Fair in 2011. “I’ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man’s body.”

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like “Criminal Minds,” “One Tree Hill,” and “How I Met Your Mother.” He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama “Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23,” and the short-lived “CSI” spinoff “CSI: Cyber” and CBS’ “Friends With Better Lives.”

He’s also appeared in a number of movies, such as Kevin Smith’s 2001 comedy “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and its 2019 sequel, “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.” He also was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of “The Rules of Attraction” in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on “The Masked Singer,” after singing a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.

Van Der Beek was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in 2023. His diagnosis followed a colonoscopy he scheduled after sensing something was "off" with his body, People reported.

The actor became a vocal advocate for early cancer screening: Anyone over the age of 45 can get screened; he did so at 46.

"One of the things I was really lucky about was when I heard the news, I was like, ‘This is gonna be the best thing that’s ever happened to me,’ ” he said during his final interview, broadcast in December on the "Today" show. "I had this little voice in my head that said, ‘You’re gonna make changes in your life that you would never, ever make if you didn’t have this extreme of a diagnosis, and it’s gonna add healthy, happy years to your life.'"

Van Der Beek's death comes after comedian Catherine O'Hara died last month. Her death certificate listed rectal cancer as a factor in her death.

In an Instagram post last year marking his 48th birthday, Van Der Beek reflected on the impact the cancer diagnosis had on him.

"When I was younger I used to define myself as an actor, which was never really all that fulfilling. Then I became a husband, and that was much better. Then I became a father, and that was the ultimate," he said. "I defined myself then as a loving, capable, strong, supportive husband, father, provider, steward of the land that we're so lucky to live on. For a long time the felt like a good definition."

But then after being diagnosed, he said "I had to look my own mortality in the eye and come nose to nose with death. In all of those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me."

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.