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James Van Der Beek, known to many as Dawson Leery from his breakout role in the film Drama of the late 90s Dawson Creek died at the age of 48 on Wednesday. Although he will forever be Dawson to many, Van Der Beek, an aspiring teen film director, has built an impressive and diverse career in the entertainment industry, and who battled colorectal cancer.
In his last on-screen role, the actor played Dean Wilson, a school district superintendent and candidate for mayor of IL, Legally blonde The prequel series is set to premiere on Prime Video On the first of July. Here’s a look at seven of Van Der Beek’s best roles.
Two shows, CSI: Cyber, in which he played FBI Special Agent Elijah Mundo, and Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, in which Van Der Beek played a fictionalized version of himself, are not currently available for streaming anywhere.
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Dawson’s Creek is a prime-time television series that made James Van Der Beek a household name. The series, which ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2003, featured a group of young talent, including Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson. The show follows Dawson Leery, an aspiring director, and his friends as they face the many challenges of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.
This 1999 film is the title that really helped launch his career. Varsity Blues follows underdog football player Jonathan “Mox” Moxon (Van Der Beek), who ends up getting called up to replace the star player of his high school football team (played by Paul Walker). Now he must deal with this new responsibility – to the team and his city – and the intense pressure that comes with it.
James Van Der Beek has made many great appearances throughout his career. In the 2001 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, he appeared as himself alongside Jason Biggs, dressed as Jay vs. Biggs as Bob. somewhat. Things get even more complicated when it’s revealed that both actors are filming a movie based on Bluntman and Chronic, the fictional superhero who alters the alter egos of the film’s titular zombies.
It was clear from his choice of roles that Van Der Beek had a lot of work to do in Dawson’s Creek. The 2002 film “Rules of Attraction” is a great example of the actor’s range and need to distance himself from the role that made him a star. The film, based on the Bret Easton Ellis novel, stars Van Der Beek as Sean Bateman (the younger brother of American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman), and follows him and his friends as they take drugs, have sex, and navigate the privileged, hedonistic college life of the 1980s.
Van der Beek took a range of creative twists throughout his career. One of his most underrated roles came in 2017 when he played a fictionalized version of Diplo, the world-famous DJ and music producer. Co-created by Van Der Beek and executive produced by Diplo, this short-lived comedy told a variety of humorous and sometimes bizarre life lessons through the eyes of the prolific DJ.
James Van Der Beek played Matt, a tough, Donald Trump-like character, in the first season of Ryan Murphy’s 1980s-’90s drama Pose. The series, which ran from 2018 to 2021, explored the decade’s underground dancehall scene, and features prominent white actors such as Van Der Beek in supporting roles to help bolster the show’s representation. For an actor who has earned a reputation for being a kind and earnest family man, he really excelled in playing this unlikeable man.
Van der Beek’s voice can be heard in Castle in the Sky, the 1986 Studio Ghibli classic directed by Hayao Miyazaki. He is not in the original Japanese version, but he played a voice role when the film was later dubbed into English by Disney in 2003. The film is about a girl named Sheeta who falls from the sky with a mysterious amulet. She goes on an adventure with a boy named Pazu to uncover her lineage and her connection to a floating castle in the sky. James Van Der Beek provided the voice of Pazu. Anna Paquin, Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill also star.