James Van Der Beek, Dawson's Creek Star and Father of 6, Dies at 48 After Cancer Journey

James Van Der Beek, who played a beloved teen heartthrob at the center of the late '90s and early aughts drama Dawson’s Creek, has died following a battle with colorectal cancer. He was 48.

via: People

The actor, best known for his roles in Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues, died after a journey with stage 3 colorectal cancer.

His wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, announced the news on Instagram.

"Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning," Kimberly wrote. "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."

Van Der Beek, who shares six kids with Kimberly (daughters Olivia, Annabel, Emilia and Gwendolyn, and sons Joshua and Jeremiah) first shared his cancer diagnosis exclusively with PEOPLE in November 2024, saying he was focusing on his health and family.

"I have colorectal cancer,” he revealed. “I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family.”

“There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good," he added.

The cancer was discovered after a routine colonoscopy in August 2023. Going into the appointment, Van Der Beek said he wasn’t worried, but looking back, he was experiencing symptoms.

"It was just a change in bowel habits," he told PEOPLE for a November 2024 cover story. "I thought, I probably need to change my diet a little bit. Maybe I need to stop coffee. Maybe I need to not put cream in the coffee. And then I finally took that out of the diet, and it didn't improve, and I thought, all right, I better go get this checked out."

"I felt really, really good as I was coming out of anesthesia that I had finally done it and looked into it," he continued. "And as I was coming out of the haze, the gastroenterologist said — in his most pleasant bedside manner — it is cancer."

It was then that he went into shock, he said, and his entire life suddenly changed.

"I'm very healthy," he said at the time. "I was in amazing cardiovascular shape. I tried to eat healthy as much as I could, as far as I knew at the time. Though I've since learned a lot about what actually eating healthy is."

Although he noted that it was a “full-time job” to have cancer — from doctor appointments, dealing with insurance and cataloging results — Van Der Beek said that one of the hardest parts was simply sharing the news.

"Telling people required a lot of energy," he admitted. "I'm an empath. I like to take care of everybody. I'm a provider, and especially at that point, I was trying to be Superman and be all things to all people and be a dad and a provider. And so to have to tell people and my father and my siblings and my kids, it was really tricky."

Still, the supportive responses he received were overwhelming, the Dawson's Creek star said.

“It was amazing,” he explained, tearing up. “I’m never the person who asked for any help — ever. It’s not in my DNA. And I thought that was a fine way to be until cancer. The way friends showed up was such a beautiful experience — and I would never have otherwise seen how much people care about me.”

At the time, Van Der Beek said he was doing his best to keep a positive outlook.

"I really feel like this is going to be the biggest life redirect," he said in November 2024, "and I'm going to make changes that I never would've made otherwise. That I'm going to look back on in a year or five years, 30 years from now and say, 'Thank God that happened.'"

“I’ve really been so blessed with my wife and kids,” he gushed. “I’ve got a lot to live for, and it’s a beautiful life.”

He made his final public appearance in an interview with Today's Craig Melvin on Dec. 19. At the time, he said he was feeling "much, much better than I did a couple months ago."

"It's been a longer journey than I ever thought it would be. It's required more of me — more patience, more discipline, more strength than I knew I had. I knew I was strong — I didn't know I was this strong. But I feel good."

It marked his first interview after missing a Dawson's Creek cast reunion event due to illness in September. The actor was unable to attend the event after coming down with a stomach virus, but he appeared via video with a pre-recorded message to fans. "I want to stand on that stage and thank every single person in the theater for being here tonight. From the cast to the crew to everybody who's doing anything and has been so generous, and especially every single last one of you – you are the best fans in the world," he said.

His wife, Kimberly, and their six children attended the event in his place.

"As crushed as I was not being able to go to that Dawson’s Creek reunion, my family got to go. And I was Zooming in on that night and they got a standing ovation just for taking their seats," Van Der Beek told Melvin. "And all that love that would have otherwise been directed at me, was directed at my family. It was just one of the most beautiful moments I’ve ever gotten to witness. I’m just so grateful to the fans for doing that."

Van Der Beek, who was born March 8, 1977 in Connecticut, first got his taste for acting in high school when he played Danny Zuko in the theater production of Grease. He continued in theater in the years following but decided to put acting on the back burner while he got his degree in at Duke University, despite having a few small roles in films on his resume.

After a couple years, he dropped out of college and later landed the lead role of Dawson Leery in Dawson's Creek. He starred on the series alongside Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams for six seasons from 1998 to 2003.

Set in the fictional small town of Capeside, Mass., the popular WB teen chronicled a group of friends whose love lives, hopes and dreams intertwined as they figured out their way through high school and college. The show covered weighty issues like mental health, death and homophobia in addition to typical teenage fare including prom dates, new friends and first love.

Van Der Beek has since appeared in both films and television. He has starred in several hit films over the past couple of years, with roles in Varsity Blues (1999), How I Met Your Mother (2005) and Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013), among others.

Van Der Beek met wife Kimberly in 2009, shortly after his first marriage ended, and wed the following year on Aug. 1, 2010, in Tel Aviv, Israel. They since welcomed six kids, Olivia, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn, Joshua and Jeremiah.

The actor previously called life with six kids a “humbling” experience while speaking with PEOPLE in May 2023. "When you think you've got it down, you get one that throws a curveball at you,” he said. “And it's regulating our own emotions when things do get hectic and chaos ensues, which is inevitable at times."

He added at the time that the "biggest delight" of watching his kids was seeing "how they interact" with each other. "They all take care of each other," he said. "Sometimes they step in to help solve problems of their own volition. And the moment I see them looking after their baby brother, I really feel like, 'Oh man, for whatever I've done wrong, I'm doing something right here.' "

During his 2024 cover interview, he gushed that he felt like he won the lottery being a parent to his kids. "I really don't think of myself as having any ownership over any of my children," he said. "I just feel like we won the great cosmic lottery that these souls chose to have us as their parents and are asking us to raise them. And I just feel so lucky as they reveal to us who they are, stage by stage, bit by bit. So I'm not a big, like, 'Oh, they got that from me' person ever. Even the physical resemblance, which is pretty undeniable."

In 2024, just a month after he announced his diagnosis, Van Der Beek starred in The Real Full Monty alongside Taye Diggs, Tyler Posey, NFL star Chris Jones (of the Kansas City Chiefs) and longtime Dancing with the Stars judge Bruno Tonioli. The two-hour special showed the men strip down to raise awareness for prostate, testicular and colorectal cancer testing and research.

He most recently appeared in the comedy series, Overcompensating, and is set to star in Elle, the new Legally Blonde prequel series premiering later this year.

During his 2024 cover interview, he was reflective on what his cancer journey taught him about life.

“It's okay to not know. It's okay to hit the depths of despair," he said. "And that is actually maybe the point of it all, is to go through all that and to look at setbacks as signposts to a destiny that I never would've found otherwise, to look at and to recognize that each awful moment could be a necessary part of the narrative. I mean, the hero's journey is never a straight line toward ascendance.”