Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek has died aged 48 after a public two-year battle with colorectal cancer.

The actor's loved ones confirmed his passing in an emotional Instagram post on Wednesday.

It read: '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.'

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and their six children. 

The actor and his wife share daughters Olivia, 15, Annabel, 12, Emilia, nine, and Gwendolyn, seven, as well as sons Joshua, 13, and Jeremiah, four. 

Jennifer Garner, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lucy Hale, Christie Brinkley and Rumer Willis responded to the family's statement with the like button. 

A GoFundMe page was launched on Wednesday to help support Van Der Beek's family with $500,000 as a starting ask. Kimberly wrote on her Insta Stories: 'My friends created this link to support me and out children during this time. With gratitude and a broken heart.'

It was added on the page, 'Your generosity will help cover essential living expenses, pay bills, and support the children's education.' More than $100,000 was raised within an hour of news of the star's passing.

Soon after Van Der Beek's Dawson's Creek costar Busy Philipps shared on Instagram, 'My heart is deeply hurting for all of us today…every person who knew James and loved him, anyone who loved his work or had the pleasure of meeting him, all of his dear friends and community that surrounded him as he battled this illness, especially his parents and brother and sister. 

'But I am profoundly heartbroken for his incredible wife Kimberly and their six magical children. There is a go fund me for them to help out and i’ll put the link in my stories. James Van Der Beek was one in a billion and he will be forever missed and i don’t know what else to say. i am just so so sad. He was my friend and i loved him and i’m so grateful for our friendship all these years.❤️.' 

Van Der Beek announced in November 2024 that he had cancer.

'There's no playbook for how announce these things, but I'd planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon… to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms,' he wrote on social media.

'But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news.

'I've been dealing with this privately until now, getting treatment and dialing in my overall health with greater focus than ever before. I'm in a good place and feeling strong. It's been quite the initiation, and I'll tell you more when I'm ready.

'Apologies to all the people in my life who I'd planned on telling myself. Nothing about this process has occurred on my preferred timeline… But we roll with it, taking each surprise as a signpost, pointing us toward a greater destiny than we would have discovered without divine intervention. Please know that my family and I deeply appreciate all the love and support.' 

Later Van Der Beek told People he was getting through the health ordeal with the 'support of my incredible family.'

And he slowed down dramatically in the past two years: 'The beauty of just taking things a little bit more slowly and prioritizing rest and really allowing that to be the job, I'm just on the journey,' he during an interview on Today. The actor added, 'It's a process. It'll probably be a process for the rest of my life.'

The star was often updated fans on social media about his cancer journey.

'I feel a little bit better every month. It's required more of me — more patience, more discipline,' he said late last year when addressing his weight loss. 'More strength than I knew I had. I knew I was strong, I didn't know I was this strong,' the star said in the emotional conversation.

His last Instagram post was on January 25 where he looked slender but healthy. He was wishing his daughter and father a happy birthday. 

The star had moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas with his family in 2020 for a simpler life as they lived on a ranch.

Van Der Beek shot to fame in the 90s as Dawson's Creek teen heartthrob Dawson Leery when he was 20 years old.

The drama ran for six seasons on the WB Network between 1998 and 2003 and also launched the careers of Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.

On the show, Katie portrayed Dawson's childhood love, Joey Potter, while Joshua played their other friend and Joey's true love, Pacey Witter. Michelle completed the core group as the rebellious Jen Lindley.

In his early days, Van Der Beek wasn't prepared for the level of fame that came with playing the lead role in the high school drama.

'Getting recognized is something that took me a long time... I had a big learning curve on it,' he told People in 2024.

'It was a different interaction back then. Now, it's a lot more grown-up, and back then, I was so tortured about it because I loved being an observer and a fly on the wall and having random conversations with people.

'I remember being so broken up about the fact that those random conversations or random acts of kindness were now taken away because there was this thing called 'celebrity' in between me and somebody else, and it became the center of attention.'

Despite having to overcome dealing with global fame, Van Der Beek ultimately treasured his time on Dawson's Creek.

In recent years too, he very much delighted in reconnecting with his former cast mates, and in August 2025, it was announced that he and the cast would be reuniting for a live reading of the show's pilot episode.

The celebration was a one-night-only charity event to raise money for the nonprofit F Cancer and for Van Der Beek amid his cancer journey.

Days before the event was due to take place, however, Van Der Beek was devastated to announce that he had to pull out of the appearance due to illness.

Expressing his disappointment in a pre-recorded video which played on the night, he told fans: 'I have been looking forward to this night for months and months ever since my angel Michelle Williams said she was putting it together.

Van Der Beek, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year on doctor's orders. 

He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.

He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey´s Drew University but left school early when he got Dawson´s Creek.

In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his 'selfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,' the university said.

His other notable film roles are in 2001's Texas Rangers, 2002's Rules Of Attraction, 2006's The Plague, 2007's Final Draft, 2013's Labor Day, 2017's Downsizing and 2020's Bad Hair.

He also popped up on the TV shows One Tree Hill, Mercy, Law & Order: SVU, How I Met Your Mother, Friends With Better Lives, CSI: Cyber, Pose, Vampirina and Overcompensating.

The star's next role is in the TV series Elle, a version of Legally Blonde, starring Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods.