James Van Der Beek played pensive, movie-loving teen Dawson Leery on the hit TV drama Dawson's Creek from 1998-2003. (The same series launched the careers of Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams.) Dawson's Creek made Van Der Beek a popular wholesome heartthrob and led to his starring role in the 1999 movie Varsity Blues (with Paul Walker and Ali Larter). Since then his appearances on screen have been few and far between. His other film roles include Texas Rangers (2001, with Usher), The Rules of Attraction (2002, based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis), and the independent film The Plague (2006).
Van Der Beek married the actress Heather McComb on 5 July 2003.
Career Highlights: Castle in the Sky, Clive Barker's The Plague, Varsity Blues
First Major Screen Credit: Castle in the Sky (1986)
Biography
Tall, blonde, and possessing a choir of perfect teeth that would make any dentist jealous, James Van Der Beek has emerged as one of the ultimate teen pin-ups of the late 1990s. First attaining prominence with the title role of Dawson Leary in the WB Network's Dawson's Creek, Van Der Beek proceeded to branch out with film and stage work, and in the process managed to be anointed in 1998 as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful."
Born March 8, 1977 to a cell phone salesman father and a mother who ran a gymnastics studio, Van Der Beek was raised in his hometown of Cheshire, Connecticut. The oldest of three children, he was an honors student and excelled at football until an injury sidelined his budding career. In its own way the injury proved to be serendipitous, as it led Van Der Beek to take up acting. Following a casting trip to New York with his mother, Van Der Beek made his professional debut at the age of 16 in the Off-Broadway production of Finding the Sun, which was written and directed by Edward Albee. More stage work ensued, as did some television work (most notably in the form of a 1995 stint on As the World Turns).
Van Der Beek made his film debut in the 1995 comedy Angus, aptly cast as a golden-boy football quarterback. Another movie, the little-seen Claire Danes/Jude Law vehicle I Love You, I Love You Not, followed in 1997, but it was his starring role in Dawson's Creek], premiering in January of 1998, that gave Van Der Beek his big break. The show's success with critics and audiences alike propelled Van Der Beek and his fellow cast members into the limelight, and soon Van Der Beek secured his first major film roles, first in the little-seen Harvest (1998), and then in the football comedy-drama Varsity Blues (1998). The film's modest reviews were overshadowed by its financial success, geared as it was toward a new generation of teenagers eager to see their favorite actors in glorious celluloid. The film's enthusiastic commercial response, coupled with Dawson's continuing success, virtually guaranteed the young actor that no matter what the future held for him, his career had certainly gotten off to a very positive start.
Though to this point Van Der Beek's success had been built on the image of the squeaky clean, all-American small town boy, a pair of efforts following the millennial turnover signaled that the actor who had become the very personification of white-bred wholesomeness was determined to create a new, decidedly more edgy image for himself. Though his initial effort ended in mystery as the segment featuring Van Der Beek as a closeted high school homosexual was cut from director Todd Solandz's Storytelling (2002) shortly before the film's release, his efforts would be cemented later that same year with the subsequent release of The Rules of Attraction. Directed by Pulp Fiction collaborator Roger Avery (Killing Zoe) and based on a novel by American Psycho author Brett Easton Ellis, The Rules of Attraction found the former innocent plunged into a strange world of drugs and sexual deviance that left many Dawson's Creek fans up in arms. As college student/drug dealer Sean Bateman (who also happens to be the brother of American Psycho maniac Patrick Bateman) Van Der Beek essayed what was without question his seediest role to date. With his Dawson's Creek and Rules of Attraction characters existing on the most extreme polar opposite ends of the spectrum imaginable, {$Van Der Beek made it no secret that his acting coach recieved a hearty workout as the actor attempted to balance hiumself between the two projects. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Van Der Beek was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of Melinda, a former dancer and gymnastics studio manager, and James William Van Der Beek, Sr, a cellular phone company executive and former professional baseball pitcher.[1] He attended Norton Elementary School, Dodd Junior High School, and the Cheshire Academy. At the age of 15, he asked his mother to take him into New York City to get an agent and try his hand professionally.
Van Der Beek made his professional debut in the New York premiere of Edward Albee's play Finding the Sun at the Signature Theatre Company in which he played the role of "Fergus." The production, which was also directed by Albee, received good reviews. [2][3] At age 17, while still in high school, he performed in the musical Shenandoah at the Goodspeed Opera House, and made his feature film debut with a bit part as a bully in the teen-oriented 1995 film Angus. The following year, he shot a small role on the independent film I Love You, I Love You Not which starred Claire Danes, Jude Law and legandary French film star Jeanne Moreau.
Van Der Beek attended Drew University but later dropped out to pursue acting. He performed at the Vinyard Theater in New York in Nicky Silver's play, My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine, and played a supporting role in the independent film Cash Crop, which was originally shot in spring of 1997 and originally titled Harvest released until in 2001.
Television and film career
In 1997 Van Der Beek auditioned for three television pilots. One of them was for the fledgling WB Network. The show was Dawson's Creek. Van Der Beek won the title role of "Dawson Leery", and the show's 1998 debut was a success that helped to establish the network and its cast, which included Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, and Joshua Jackson. The series, shot in Wilmington, North Carolina, ran for six seasons, was popular for the first few years of broadcasting and made household names of the cast.
In 1999, he starred in the teen football comedy Varsity Blues. Van Der Beek won an MTV Movie Award for his role.
After Dawson's Creek's run ended in 2003, Van Der Beek immediately returned to the Off-Broadway Stage, in Lanford Wilson's Rain Dance. He completed an unproduced screenplay titled Winning. Since then he has made a few appearances on television, including a role on Ugly Betty, and a performance in 2007 in Criminal Minds in which he played a killer. In 2008, he made a guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother. Since 2008, he has also had a recurring role on One Tree Hill. He recently appeared on The Storm a NBC miniseries, and in an episode of the fifth season of Medium.
Personal life
In July 2003, Van Der Beek married actress Heather McComb. In June 2009, Van Der Beek's representative confirmed that the couple had separated after six years of marriage.[4] On November 20, 2009, Van Der Beek filed for divorce.[5]
