James Van Der Beek Biography
Summary
"James William Van Der Beek, Jr." (born March 8, 1977) is an American television, film and stage actor, known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery in the WB Network drama series "Dawson's Creek".
Early life and stage career
Van Der Beek was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of Melinda, a former dancer and gymnastics studio manager, and James William Van Der Beek, Sr, a cellular phone company executive and former professional baseball pitcher. His father retired from baseball shortly after James was born and took a job with the phone company as a sales account manager.
The family then moved to Cheshire, Connecticut, where Van Der Beek played football, baseball, ran track and field, and even had a brief stint on the diving team. He attended Norton Elementary School and Dodd Junior High School. He mowed lawns around the neighborhood to earn money, and earned a full academic scholarship to the private school Cheshire Academy. At the age of 13, Van Der Beek suffered a concussion while playing football, which prevented him from playing the rest of the season. Van Der Beek turned to acting and got into community theater. He played Danny Zuko in his hometown's community theater production of "Grease". This led to more roles, and at age 15, he asked his mother to take him into New York City that summer to see if he could get an agent and try his hand professionally.
Van Der Beek made his professional debut in the New York premiere of three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward Albee's play "Finding the Sun" at the Signature Theatre Company in which he played the role of 'Fergus.' The production, which was also directed by Albee, received rave reviews, especially for the young Van Der Beek. David Richards of the "New York Times" called his performance 'refreshingly un-self-conscious', and Vincent Canby wrote, 'Mr. Albee has directed this text with skill, humor and an excellent cast, most notably (if only because he really is 16) James Van Der Beek, who plays the boy with the comic ease of someone with 20 years' experience onstage.' With this experience under his belt, Van Der Beek was now sure he wanted to pursue acting. At age 17, while still in high school, he performed in the musical "Shenandoah" at the Goodspeed Opera House, and made his feature film debut as a bully in the teen-oriented 1995 film "Angus". The following year, he shot the independent film "I Love You, I Love You Not" opposite Claire Danes and Jude Law.
After graduating from high school, Van Der Beek attended Drew University on a partial academic scholarship, where he took classes in English and sociology but later dropped out to pursue acting. While there, he performed in Drew's all-male a cappella group 36 Madison Avenue. During his stay he performed at the Vinyard Theater in New York in Nicky Silver's play, "My Marriage to Ernest Borgnine", and played a supporting role in the independent film "Cash Crop", which was originally shot in spring of 1997 and originally titled "Harvest" and was released (largely on his name, despite the fact that his role was quite small) in 2001 after he'd become famous.
Television and film career
Toward the end of his sophomore year of college, Van Der Beek auditioned for three television pilots. One of them was for the fledgling WB Network. The show was "Dawson's Creek". Van Der Beek won the title role of 'Dawson Leery', and the show's 1998 debut was a massive success that not only helped to establish the network, but made stars (and teen idols) of its cast, which also included Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, and Kerr Smith. The series, shot in Wilmington, North Carolina, ran for six seasons, was hugely popular among the coveted 18-34 year old demographic, and was syndicated all over the world.
Van Der Beek parlayed the success of the show into film in 1999, starring in the teen football comedy "Varsity Blues" which was #1 at the box office for two weeks, broke the current box-office record for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend at that time, and grossed $53 million in the U.S alone. Van Der Beek won an MTV Movie Award for his leading role.
In 2002, he played Sean Bateman (younger brother of "American Psycho" protagonist Patrick Bateman) in the film adaptation of Brett Easton Ellis' "The Rules of Attraction", which was written and directed by Roger Avary. While the film initially turned only a modest profit at the box office, it has gone on to become a cult classic on DVD throughout the world.
During this time, Van Der Beek was chosen as one of "People" magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People in the World' in 1998, hosted "Saturday Night Live", and appeared in several other films, including "Texas Rangers", "Scary Movie", and "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back".
After "Dawson's Creek"s run ended in 2003, Van Der Beek immediately returned to the New York Stage, in the New York Premiere of Lanford Wilson's "Rain Dance". Since 2003, he has completed his first screenplay, "Winning", a hero's journey/love story set in the world of modern-day Major League Baseball, and has optioned several properties to develop, including Charles Bowdon's non-fiction book "A Shadow in the City".
Van Der Beek has made a few notable appearances on television, including a role on "Ugly Betty", and a performance in 2007 in the two-part, post-Super Bowl episode of "Criminal Minds" in which he played a young man with Dissociative Identity Disorder. In 2008, he made a guest appearance on the CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" in which he played an old flame of Robin's whom she falls for again. Since 2008, Van Der Beek has also had recurring role as a movie director on "One Tree Hill".
On November 6, 2008, "TV Guide" reported that Van Der Beek will co-star on upcoming FOX drama pilot "Eva Adams".
James will star in "The Storm" on NBC, a dark-weather miniseries premiering on July 26, 2009 at 9/8 C. Van Der Beek plays scientist Kirk Hafner, who's tasked with saving the world when an eccentric billionaire tests a weather-creation machine with catastrophic results.
Personal life
In July 2003, Van Der Beek married actress Heather McComb, whom he met in 1998 during the filming of "Dawson's Creek". They live primarily in Los Angeles; both are attendees of the Kabbalah Center. In June 2009, Van Der Beek's representative confirmed that the couple had separated after six years of marriage.
External links
(James Van Der Beek's Official Website)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about James Van Der Beek.
