James Van Der Beek from Dawson's Creek

“I don’t wanna wait for our liiiiiives to be ooooover.”

Taking teen angst to the max, Dawson’s Creek captivated teenagers around the globe, mostly due to the rampant eye candy including none other than lead male heartthrob Dawson aka James Van Der Beek.  But where did the blue-eyed boy from next door go?

Being practically perfect at everything, the young Van Der Beek excelled at sports as a youngun, only to be concussed playing football aged 13.

What’s a talented fellow to do then?  Turn to acting of course!  After playing Danny Zuko in a local theatre production of Grease, he persuaded his mother to take him to NYC to see if he could make it professionally.  And by gum he did it!

Between the ages of 15-17 Beek made his television debut in Clarissa Explains It All, he secured a role in thrice Pulitzer Prize winning play Finding The Sun, where Beek’s performance was noted as having a maturity far beyond his 16 years and entered the silver screen as a bully in Angus.

So it’s no surprise that he won the title role of in what was to become a defining and one of the most highly successful teen television series of the nineties, Dawson’s Creek.

Receiving mixed reactions upon its release, Dawson’s Creek was considered by Parent’s Associations and republican sectors as overly sexual and provocative but on the other hand it was praised for its realism and intelligent dialogue.

Dawson’s Creek made stars of its protagonists played by Katie Holmes (Batman Begins & Mrs Tom Cruise), Joshua Jackson (Fringe, Urban Legend) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain & ex-Mrs Heath Ledger) but it seems the old Beek from the Creek has slipped relatively into obscurity.

During Dawson’s Creek’s run, Beek starred in Varsity Blues and had cameos in Scary Movie and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Contrary to popular belief, James Van Der Beek has kept himself quite busy, although mostly stateside. 

Well what the Dickens happened to him?

Since leaving the Creek, James returned to the stage in the New York premiere of Rain Dance and has penned a screenplay, Winning, “a hero's journey/love story set in the world of modern-day Major League Baseball”.

On the big screen, James most recently played the lead role in the Cold War inspired movieFormosa Betrayed which by the looks of it is staying stateside.

In television, Beek has had minor appearances in Ugly Betty, Medium and How I Met Your Mother and had a recurring role in One Tree Hill and even directed one episode.

Beek has most recently starred in US television mini-series The Storm (how original) - yet another meteorological drama of ‘when weather goes wrong’ and has just signed up to star as Dr. Joe Briggs in medical drama Mercy.

Off screen, James was married to Heather McComb whom he met on the set of Dawson’s Creek but the couple divorced his after six years of marriage in June 2009.

So there you have it James Van Der Beek is alive and kicking…hoorah!  We can all go about our daily lives once more.