Dawson’s Creek star Joshua Jackson has publicly addressed the death of his co-star James Van Der Beek for the first time, paying tribute to him as a “good man” and “a beautiful, kind, curious, interested, dedicated father”.
Van Der Beek, who famously portrayed Dawson Leery opposite Jackson’s Pacey Whitter, died on 11 February at the age of 48 after suffering from bowel cancer.
Speaking for the first time about the loss, Jackson reflected on the impact: “I think it hits in a variety of different ways.
“For me as a father now, I think the enormity of that tragedy for his family hits me in a very different way than just as a colleague. So I think the processing is is ongoing.”
Jackson, speaking on the morning talk show Today said: “He and I shared this very amazing time… and it was formational for us.
“I know both of us look back on that time with great fondness, but I will also say that I know that I’m really just a footnote in what he actually accomplished in his life.”
He continued: “He became what we used to just call a good man, a man of the kind of belief, the kind of faith, that allowed him to face the impossible with grace, an unbelievable partner and husband, just a real man who showed up for his family and a beautiful, kind, curious, interested, dedicated father.”
Van Der Beek had six children with wife Kimberly: daughters Olivia, Annabel, Emilia and Gwendolyn, and sons Joshua and Jeremiah.
Kimberly marked what would have been his 49th birthday on 8 March, saying: “I’m missing you tremendously.”
Van Der Beek rose to fame alongside Jackson in the popular US teen drama Dawson’s Creek, which ran for six seasons from 1998 until 2003.
They starred opposite Katie Holmes and Michelle Williams as the central quartet of hyper-articulate teenagers who were constantly embroiled in complex romantic entanglements.
A GoFundMe for the Van Der Beek family has raised more than US$2.7 million (£2 million).
