Actor James Van Der Beek (best known for the prime-time soap Dawson’s Creek) died on Feb. 11 after a long battle with cancer. He was 48. The tall, blond and handsome Van Der Beek was already appearing Off-Broadway in his teens; he was a rising young star (notably in Varsity Blues) when cast as Dawson Leery in the 1998-2003 teen soap Dawson’s Creek. His career leveled off thereafter, but he continued to appear in such movies and TV shows as Texas Rangers, The Rules of Attraction, Pose, Formosa Betrayed, Labor Day, and Bad Hair; he had a particularly good turn making fun of himself in the sitcom Don’t Trust the B—in Apartment 23. Van Der Beek continued working through last year, despite his illness. He said of Dawson’s Creek, “As popular as the show was, the fact that people are still all relevant however many years later, the fact that none of us are in jail, is pretty staggering. The odds that four people that young, who got that famous that quickly, would all turn out okay is pretty rare. I think a lot of it had to do with shooting in North Carolina, and being away from the pitfalls that come in Hollywood. We all kept each other honest to a degree.”
