James Van Der Beek Quotes on Death, Cancer Battle

James Van Der Beek was never afraid to address his own mortality.

In fact, the Dawson’s Creek alum was open about how his battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer helped him gain a new perspective on life before his Feb. 11 death.

“This year, I had to look my own mortality in the eye,” he shared in an Instagram video posted on his 48th birthday in March 2025. “I had to come nose to nose with death.”

And while James—dad to kids Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 12, Emilia, 9, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 4, with wife Kimberly Van Der Beek—previously used labels such as actor, husband and father to “define” him, he said his cancer diagnosis “stripped” him of such definitions.

“I was away for treatment, so I could no longer be a husband that was helpful to my wife. I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them,” he explained. “And so, I was faced with the question: ‘If I am just a too-skinny, weak guy alone in an apartment with cancer, what am I?”’