“Art has always been created by people doing variations on a theme”: James Van Der Beek, 1977–2026

He was a teen idol who managed to parlay his early success into becoming a likable, popular leading man and character actor, a family man who seemed to have a healthy perspective on fame and art. James Van Der Beek was always willing to commit to a performance, and by all accounts faced the end of his life with the same clear-headedness he brought to his career.

His professional debut was off-Broadway in Finding the Sun, a one-act play written and directed by Edward Albee. The New York Times praised his performance as a “refreshingly un-self-conscious” standout. He was sixteen. He booked a few movie roles and did more theater. In college, he auditioned for three television pilots: one was Dawson’s Creek. 

The rest, of course, was TV history. Dawson’s Creek ran for six seasons, launching several careers and an infamous meme. Its success was part of WB’s move from ‘urban network’ to ‘teen network,’ boosting 7th Heaven and helping pave the way for the cult success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.¹ The show was everywhere, even in a J. Crew catalog. 

It’s not easy to be the title character in a show like Dawson’s Creek. If your co-stars get too popular (if, for example, they were Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams) you might get labeled as an annoying necessity (the nascent Television Without Pity, originally created as a Dawson hatewatching site, seemed to think so). He never seemed to struggle much with his Dawson legacy, though, gamely parodying himself and his image for Funny or Die and a few Jay and Silent Bob films, appearing as “Dawson” in Scary Movie, and of course playing a heightened version of himself in Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23.²

Don’t Trust the B—- is where Van Der Beek caught my attention: I considered myself too old for teen dramas, being all the way in my early twenties when Dawson was on the air. He was absolutely fearless and shameless in the role, playing Kristen Rytter’s platonic soulmate, a vapid but pretty celebrity trying to revive his career with Scorcese films and Dancing with the Stars. He had an easy, engaging chemistry onscreen, and was always thrilled to poke fun at himself, onscreen or in interviews.

After Don’t Trust the B—-, he scored a leading role in the ill-fated CSI: Cyber and appeared in a friend’s Power Rangers fan film, which didn’t go as viral as his sobbing on Dawson’s Creek but did pretty well. When Cyber was cancelled, he mostly appeared in smaller roles with smaller commitments, including a supporting role in the first season of Pose and, yes, Dancing with the Stars. (Van Der Beek and his family moved to Texas in 2020; he was a father of six by 2021.) 

After going public with his cancer diagnosis in late 2024, most of his appearances were fundraisers for cancer charities or his own expenses. He was too ill to attend a Dawson’s reunion fundraiser in 2025. (People reports that his family is struggling financially in the wake of his death; cancer is expensive.)

Colorectal cancer has been surging among people under 50 in the United States, even as overall cancer deaths continue to drop. It’s the top cause of cancer deaths for that age group. I know PSAs are boring and lame, but getting screening starting at age 45 and reaching out if something goes sideways with your gut health could, in fact, save your life. So, you know. Do that. Do it for Dawson. No one wants to see him cry.

1. A well-known pattern, unfortunately. ↩︎
2. If you haven’t read Captain Nath’s writeup before, go do that now, the rest of the article will wait. ↩︎