James Van Der Beek
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Cheshire, Connecticut, United States
Tall, blonde, and possessing a choir of perfect teeth that would make any dentist jealous, James Van Der Beek 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. When Dawson's Creek finally came to an end, Van Der Beek appeared in Clive Barker's The Plague, Eye of the Beast, Formosa Betrayed, and Stolen. He spoofed his own image as a squeaky-clean guy by playing an obnoxious version of himself in the sitcom Don't Trust the B - in Apartment 23 and joined the cast of CSI: Cyber in 2015.
Photos
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
64% | Bad Hair |
|
— | 2020 |
65% | Jay & Silent Bob Reboot |
|
— | 2019 |
46% | Downsizing |
|
$23M | 2017 |
35% | Labor Day |
|
$13.4M | 2014 |
28% | Backwards |
|
$62k | 2012 |
19% | The Big Bang |
|
— | 2011 |
No Score Yet | Salem Falls |
|
— | 2011 |
0% | Stolen |
|
— | 2010 |
34% | Formosa Betrayed |
|
— | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Final Storm (The Storm) |
|
— | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Mrs. Miracle |
|
— | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Taken in Broad Daylight |
|
— | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Final Draft |
|
— | 2007 |
No Score Yet | Clive Barker's The Plague |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | Danny Roane: First Time Director |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | Eye of the Beast |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | Sex, Power, Love & Politics |
|
— | 2006 |
36% | Standing Still |
|
— | 2005 |
43% | The Rules of Attraction |
|
$6.5M | 2002 |
2% | Texas Rangers |
|
— | 2001 |
52% | Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back |
|
$29.9M | 2001 |
53% | Scary Movie |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Harvest |
|
— | 2000 |
No Score Yet | Harvest (Cash Crop) |
|
— | 1999 |
43% | Varsity Blues |
|
— | 1999 |
40% | I Love You, I Love You Not |
|
— | 1997 |
67% | Angus |
|
— | 1995 |
96% | Castle in the Sky |
|
— | 1989 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
Dancing With the Stars
2005
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The $100,000 Pyramid
2016-2019
|
|
|
96% |
Pose
2018-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Late Show With James Corden
2015-2019
|
|
|
98% |
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Match Game
2016-2020
|
|
|
83% |
The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale
2018
|
|
|
88% |
Room 104
2017-2020
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Desus & Mero (2016)
2016-2018
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Drop the Mic
2017-2019
|
|
|
85% |
Modern Family
2009-2020
|
|
|
90% |
What Would Diplo Do?
2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen
2009-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Talk
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Conan
2010
|
|
|
34% |
CSI: Cyber
2015-2016
|
|
|
13% |
Friends With Better Lives
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Seth Meyers
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Wendy Williams Show
2008-2020
|
|
|
85% |
Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23
2012-2013
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Comment je l'ai rencontrée
2005-2013
|
|
|
83% |
How I Met Your Mother
2005-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Jimmy Kimmel Live
2003
|
|
|
78% |
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Chelsea Lately
2007-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Last Call With Carson Daly
2007-2019
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
2009-2014
|
|
|
61% |
Franklin & Bash
2011-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001-2011
|
|
|
25% |
Mercy
2009-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Bonnie Hunt Show
2008-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Medium
2005-2011
|
|
|
13% |
The Forgotten
2009-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
One Tree Hill
2003-2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Robot Chicken
2005
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Criminal Minds
2005
|
|
|
97% |
Ugly Betty
2006-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Dawson's Creek
1998-2003
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
1992-2014
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Saturday Night Live
1975
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
True Life
1998
|
|
|
Quotes from James Van Der Beek's Characters
Officer Treadwell: | Keep an eye out, all right! |
Lauren Hynde: | The tutorial on the post modern condition? It's been cancelled. |
Sean Bateman: | Typical. |
Lauren Hynde: | I haven't seen you in it before. |
Sean Bateman: | That's what's so typical. This was the first time I bothered to show up. |
Lauren Hynde: | You've got bad timing. |
Sean Bateman: | Saturdays suck. I don't have to put up with this bullshit. I'm dropping this class. |
Lauren Hynde: | Me too. |
Sean Bateman: | Really? |
Lauren Hynde: | Yeah. I think I'm gonna change my major. |
Sean Bateman: | To what? |
Lauren Hynde: | I don't know yet. What's yours? |
Sean Bateman: | I don't even know. |
Mitchell: | Mitchell: Are you fucking crazy? |
Mitchell: | Are you fucking crazy? |
Sean Bateman: | Define crazy. [Shrieks like a lunatic] |
Sean Bateman: | Define crazy. [shrieks like a lunatic] |
Sean Bateman: | No one ever ever knows anyone. You're not ever gonna know me. |
Paul Denton: | What the hell does that mean? |
Sean Bateman: | It means, Paul, you're not ever gonna know me. Deal with it. Figure it out. |
Sean Bateman: | I just want to know you. |
Lauren Hynde: | Nobody knows anyone. You will never ever know me. |
Sean Bateman: | I really did try to kill myself... right before I faked it. |
Sean Bateman: | Rock N Roll |
Sean Bateman: | Rock and Roll. |