James Van Beek Dead at 48, Showed His Second Act as a Proud Papa
By Maya Salam New York Times James Van Der Beek was just 20 years old when he rose to fame as the titular heartthrob on the romantic teen drama “Dawson’s Creek.” He later played memorable roles like Mox, a conflicted and idealistic second-string quarterback in the sports drama “Varsity Blues,” and a fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom “Don’t Trust the B — in Apartment 23.” The reality in his adult years, though, was that Hollywood no longer came knocking with the same urgency. He instead seemed to relish the role of family man and proud father of six, openly letting fans into his home life and becoming a “dadfluencer” of sorts. If you didn’t already know that Van Der Beek, who died on Wednesday at the age of 48 a little more than a year after announcing he had colorectal cancer, was a Xennial legend, you might not even catch that from a scroll through his profiles. They are far more family photo album than famous actor. In his bios across social media, he simply...
