James Van Der Beek Made Plans For the Future in Heartbreaking Last Video Weeks Before His Death: ‘Who’s With Me?’
Jason Pham
James Van Der Beek seemingly expected to live until the spring in his heartbreaking last Instagram video posted weeks before his death.
Van Der Beek, best known for his roles in projects like Dawson’s Creek and Varsity Blues, died on the morning of February 11, 2026. He was 48 years old. His family confirmed his death in an Instagram post. “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek passed peacefully this morning. He met his final days with courage, faith, and grace. There is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come. For now we ask for peaceful privacy as we grieve our loving husband, father, son, brother, and friend,” the post read with a photo of Van Der Beek. Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, whom he married in 2010, was a collaborator on the post.
Weeks before his death, Van Der Beek, who was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in 2023, shared an Instagram video on January 15 in which he explained why he was waiting until spring to make his New Year’s Resolution. (According to the Farmer’s Almanac, spring officially starts this year on March 20, 2026, a little over a month after Van Der Beek’s death.)
“Anyone else out there finding that your New Year’s resolution was impossible to keep? I’m going to say something: I don’t think it’s your fault,” he said. “Why are we celebrating a new year in the dead of winter? Why are we celebrating new beginnings at a time when nature rests? I’m going to take winter to recover, to rest, and I’m going to make New Year’s resolutions in the spring. Who’s with me?”
Van Der Beek then went on to explain his reasoning for holding off on making any New Year’s Resolutions until spring. “Animals are hibernating! Birds fly south for the winter!” he said. “The time to celebrate a new beginning, and a new you, and a new resolution, is in the spring, at the vernal equinox, when the flowers bloom and it gets warmer and the birds return. That’s how nature does it. Why are we fighting nature?”
In an interview with Today in December 2025, Van Der Beek revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer after sensing something was off in his body, which led him to get a colonoscopy. As he was coming off of the anesthetic, his doctor informed him that he had Stage 3 colorectal cancer. “I went into shock,” he said. “I really don’t think I knew what to do. Neither did my wife. And we drove home in silence. And part of me wanted to panic. Part of me wanted to just freak out. But then another part of my brain was like, ‘You don’t know enough yet.'”
He continued, “One of the things I was really lucky about was when I heard the news, I was like, ‘This is gonna be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.’ I had this little voice in my head that said, ‘You’re gonna make changes in your life that you would never, ever make if you didn’t have this extreme of a diagnosis, and it’s gonna add healthy, happy years to your life.'”
