{"id":161510,"date":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161510\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","slug":"11-best-things-to-do-in-fort-worth-this-valentines-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/161510\/","title":{"rendered":"11 best things to do in Fort Worth this Valentine’s weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor James David Van Der Beek has died, according to an announcement<\/a> on his social media. He was 48 years old.<\/p>\n

“Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning,” the post reads. “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.<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek shared in 2020 that he and his family were moving<\/a> to the Austin area, and they settled<\/a> in Spicewood. He announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

In late 2025, Van Der Beek auctioned<\/a> some of his TV memorabilia from his time on Dawson’s Creek to pay for his treatment.<\/p>\n

The actor originally starred in coming-of-age dramas<\/a> at the dawn of the new millennium, shooting to fame playing the titular character in Dawson\u2019s Creek<\/a> and in later years parodied his own hunky persona.<\/p>\n

Forever tied to \u2018Dawson\u2019s Creek’
A one-time theater kid, Van Der Beek would star in the movie Varsity Blues and on TV in CSI: Cyber as FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, but was forever connected to Dawson\u2019s Creek, which ran from 1998 to 2003 on The WB.<\/p>\n

The series followed a group of high school friends as they learned about falling in love, creating real friendships and finding their footing in life. Van Der Beek, then 20, played 15-year-old Dawson Leery, who aspired to be a director of Steven Spielberg quality.<\/p>\n

With Paula Cole\u2019s \u201cI Don\u2019t Want To Wait,\u201d as its moody theme song, Dawson’s Creek helped define The WB as a haven for teens and young adults who related to its hyper-articulate dialogue and frank talk about sexuality. And it made household names of Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile James’ legacy will always live on, this is a huge loss to not just your family but the world,\u201d Sarah Michelle Gellar<\/a> wrote to his widow on Instagram. Katharine McPhee Foster added: \u201cThis is just beyond devastating news.\u201d Others posting messages of mourning were Jenna Dewan and Olivia Munn.<\/p>\n

The show caused a stir when one of the teens embarked on a racy affair with a teacher 20 years his senior and when Holmes’ character climbed through Dawson’s bedroom window and they curled up together. Racier shows like Euphoria and Sex Education owe a debt to Dawson’s Creek.<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek sometimes struggled to get out from under the shadow of the show but eventually leaned into lampooning himself, like on Funny Or Die videos and on Kesha’s \u201cBlow\u201d music video,<\/a> which included his laser gun battle with the pop star in a nightclub and dead unicorns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to compete with something that was the cultural phenomenon that Dawson\u2019s Creek was,\u201d he told Vulture in 2013. \u201cIt ran for so long. That\u2019s a lot of hours playing one character in front of people. So it\u2019s natural that they associate you with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A popular GIF and Varsity Blues
More than a decade after the show went off the air, a scene at the end of the show\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t scripted that I was supposed to cry; it was just one of those things where it\u2019s a magical moment and it just happens in the scene,\u201d Van Der Beek told Vanity Fair. He seemed exasperated when he told the Los Angeles Times: \u201cAll of a sudden, six years of work was boiled down to one seven-second clip on loop.\u201d (Van Der Beek himself recreated the GIF in 2011 for Funny or Die and gave it a second life.)<\/p>\n

While still on Dawson\u2019s Creek, Van Der Beek hosted Saturday Night Live \u2014 the musical guest was Everlast \u2014 and landed a plumb role in Varsity Blues, playing a second-string high school quarterback who leaps into the breach when the star suffers an injury.<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek\u2019s character, Mox, turns out to not be a football fanatic, preferring to read Kurt Vonnegut and yearning for the college education that will allow him to escape the jock mentality of his Texas town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want your life,\u201d he screams at one point. Critic Roger Ebert called him \u201cconvincing and likable.<\/p>\n

After Dawson\u2019s Creek
Some of his projects after Dawson\u2019s Creek included co-creating and playing Wesley \u201cDiplo\u201d Pentz, a dull but likable music producer in the mockumentary satire on Viceland, What Would Diplo Do? In 2019, he made it to the semifinals of ABC\u2019s Dancing with the Stars and played a balding, out-of-shape ex-boyfriend on How I Met Your Mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you make fun of yourself and don\u2019t try to go for any kind of respect, the more people seem to respect you,\u201d he told Vanity Fair in 2011. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a clown trapped in a leading man\u2019s body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 2003 and 2013, he made appearances in shows like Criminal Minds, One Tree Hill, and How I Met Your Mother. He played himself with a crackpot intensity in the Krysten Ritter-led ABC drama Don\u2019t Trust the B\u2014 in Apartment 23, and the short-lived CSI spinoff CSI: Cyber and CBS\u2019 Friends With Better Lives.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also appeared in movies such as Kevin Smith\u2019s 2001 comedy Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and its 2019 sequel, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. He was in the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation of The Rules of Attraction in 2002 opposite Jessica Biel and Kate Bosworth.<\/p>\n

In 2025, he was unmasked as Griffin on The Masked Singer, after singing a cover of John Denver\u2019s \u201cTake Me Home, Country Roads\u201d and \u201cI Had Some Help\u201d by Post Malone and Morgan Wallen.<\/p>\n

Early life as a theater kid
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. He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He earned a scholarship to New Jersey\u2019s Drew University but left school early when he was cast in Dawson\u2019s Creek. In 2024, he returned to campus to accept an honorary degree for his \u201cselfless service and exemplary commitment to the mission of Drew,\u201d the university said.<\/p>\n

Drew University President Hilary Link welcomed Van Der Beek with a popular quote from his Dawson\u2019s Creek character: \u201cEdge is fleeting,\u201d she said, \u201cbut heart lasts forever. So on this morning, we pay tribute to that heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is survived by his wife, Kimberly, and six children, Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. A GoFundMe fundraiser<\/a> has been established for the family.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Music Writer Maria Sherman and CultureMap Austin editor Brianna Caleri contributed to this report.<\/p>\n