Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek has died at the age of 48, his family have confirmed.
In a post online, the family wrote: "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."
Van Der Beek revealed in 2024 that he had been battling stage 3 colorectal cancer.
The actor was known best for embodying formative, angsty teenage years in Dawson's Creek and Varsity Blues in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The show followed a high school group of friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, than 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.
Alongside the moody theme song Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want To Wait, it made household names of Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams.
He made a surprise video appearance in September at a Dawson's Creek reunion charity event in New York City after previously dropping out due to illness.
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of Dawson Creek's third season became a GIF.
Dawson was watching as his soul mate embarks on a love affair with his best friend and burst into tears.
“It wasn’t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it’s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,” he told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: “All of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.” (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)
He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah.
- Additional reporting by Associated Press
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