Actor James Van Der Beek, best known for playing Dawson on the hit U.S. TV drama “Dawson’s Creek,” died Tuesday, local time. He was 48.
His family said on his official Instagram account, “Beloved James Van Der Beek passed away peacefully this morning,” adding that he “never lost courage, faith and kindness until the very end.”
The New York Times reported that Van Der Beek had been battling stage 3 colon cancer since being diagnosed in 2024.
Born in 1977 in Cheshire, Connecticut, he moved to New York to pursue acting and began his career on Broadway in the play “Sand.” He rose to stardom in 1998 as Dawson, a high school student in “Dawson’s Creek.” The series followed the love, friendship and growing pains of teenagers in Massachusetts and helped launch young stars including Katie Holmes and Jason Behr. It also aired in South Korea and was popular there.
Van Der Beek later appeared in NBC’s “Mercy” as a womanizing doctor and played an FBI agent in the “CSI: Cyber” series. He continued acting through recent years, including a role in the romantic comedy film “Sidelined: QB and Me.”
Van Der Beek married Heather McComb in 2003; they divorced in 2010. He later married Kimberly Brook, and they have six children.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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