It’s hard to believe James Van Der Beek has passed. The loving father and nineties "Dawson’s Creek" icon was only 48, and suffering from colorectal cancer at the time of his death. His pal Alfonso Ribeiro said he’d beat it once, and it came back. It’s all been very tragic, and marred even more by stories of the actor trying to sell memorabilia before his death to set his family up.
Because Van Der Beek was not a regularly working actor in Hollywood, there’s been some question about his health insurance coverage around the time of his death. His family for a long time didn’t own the Texas compound lived on, and upon his passing a GoFundMe account was set up for James’ wife, Kimberly, and their six young children. The GoFund Me specifically states the family are “out of funds” amidst the actor’s cancer battle, and at the time of this writing, more than $2.6 million dollars have been raised to keep them on their feet. Some major names, like Steven Spielberg and Zoe Saldaña, have even chipped in.
