Actor James Van Der Beek, best known for playing Dawson Leery on the teen drama “Dawson’s Creek,” died Wednesday at 48 after a colorectal cancer battle his family had discussed publicly in recent years.
In a statement posted on his Instagram account, his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, said he “passed peacefully” and “met his final days with courage, faith, and grace,” adding that the family was seeking privacy.
Van Der Beek disclosed in 2024 that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer after doctors found it during a routine colonoscopy the prior year, and he continued sharing updates as he underwent treatment. His death prompted an outpouring of tributes from colleagues and fans, including a message from Sarah Michelle Gellar. A fundraising page launched after his death raised more than $200,000 within an hour, according to Reuters.
A Connecticut native who began acting as a teenager, Van Der Beek became a defining face of late-1990s network youth TV, anchoring a series built around fast, candid conversations about adolescence. In a 1998 interview, he said the characters spoke “very honestly” about what teenagers face, from relationships to family pressure and ambition.
He parlayed that visibility into film roles including Varsity Blues and The Rules of Attraction, then spent the next decade moving between guest arcs and offbeat comedy, sometimes leaning into public expectations about his early image. In 2013, he told Vulture that it was “tough to compete” with a show that ran so long and left audiences strongly linking him to one character.
Health advocates have pointed to his diagnosis as another high-profile reminder that colorectal cancer is rising among younger adults. The American Cancer Society reports U.S. rates among people under 50 have increased 2.9% per year from 2013 to 2022.
