A clause in James Van Der Beek's Dawson's Creek contract meant he received no money from reruns of his hit show, it has been revealed.
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The actor died on Wednesday at the age of 48 after a two-year battle with colorectal cancer.
The extent of his financial woes were revealed in the hours after his death when friends set up a GoFundMe page to help support his widow Kimberly and their six children, who are at risk of losing their Texan home.
Fans and friends have so far raised over $1.2million in just seven hours after it was revealed that 'the costs of James's medical care and the extended fight against cancer have left the family out of funds.'
Whilst James shot to fame with his lead role in Dawson's Creek, which ran for six seasons on the WB Network between 1998 and 2003, he said that he did not earn any money from reruns or streaming deals.
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'There was no residual money,' he told Today in 2012. 'I was 20. It was a bad contract. I saw almost nothing from that.'
James Van Der Beek received no money from reruns of his hit show Dawson's Creek, it's been revealed. The actor died on Wednesday at the age of 48 after a two year battle with cancer
The extent of his financial woes were revealed in the hours after his death when friends set up a GoFundMe page to help support his widow Kimberly and their six children
It's been reported that James and his co-stars Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson and Michelle Williams started out making $35,000 per episode of Dawson's Creek, and as the show's success grew they banked as much as $175,000 per episode in the final season.
Whilst their salaries have never been confirmed, James' co-star Joshua did once boast at the age of 19 how he 'would make more money doing four episodes of Dawson's Creek than most of my friends' parents made in a year.'
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But a lack of residuals would have severely dented the cast's prospects of a long-term income from the show. In contrast it's been widely reported that the main cast members of another nineties show Friends make $20 million a year from residuals and reruns.
James made the most of his teen idol years, previously revealing how he worked non stop whilst Dawson's Creek aired, starring in movies like Varsity Blues and Texas Rangers on his breaks from filming.
'From the time I was 20 to 26, it was a pretty crazy time. I was shooting during the week, doing photo shoots on the weekends, shooting movies during the hiatus, then coming right back and doing the show,' he explained.
'Being the lead of the show and working a lot of hours—all good stuff, a tremendous education, incredible opportunity, it changed my life—it was a marathon, and by the end of it I was pretty beat.'
James ended up taking time off after Dawson's wrapped in 2003 due to burnout but admitted that his early success went to his head when it came to chasing other roles.
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'You are incredibly fortunate whatever success falls on you, which is what happened with me,' he told Today in 2012.
Whilst James shot to fame with his lead role in Dawson's Creek, which ran for six seasons on the WB Network between 1998 and 2003, he said that he did not earn any money from reruns
'But as soon as that happens, I think there is a tendency to feel like you have something to lose. Or something to protect. That can often lead to taking yourself a little too seriously.'
James went on, 'It is very easy if you have all the money in the world to just sit back and coast. But if you realised that you are going to have to start providing for yourself and for your family, it really forces you to buckle down.'
He told Variety that after passing on multiple parts in the years after Dawson's 'people stopped offering.'
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'I was very afraid to say yes to anything. I was also burned out and wanted to take a break, and I passed on a lot of things because it didn't feel like something that I really wanted to do, or something that I didn't want to promote,' he admitted.
James, who was raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, started acting at 13 after suffering a concussion playing football that prevented him from playing for a year on doctor's orders.
He landed the role of Danny Zuko in his school production of Grease.
James made the most of his teen idol years, previously revealing how he worked non stop whilst Dawson's Creek aired, starring in movies like Varsity Blues on his breaks from filming
He stuck with theater, landing at 16 in 1994 an off-Broadway role in Finding the Sun by Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Albee and one of the sons in a revival of Shenandoah at the prestigious Goodspeed Opera House in his home state.
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He earned a scholarship to New Jersey´s Drew University but left school early when he got Dawson´s Creek.
His other notable film roles are in 2001's Texas Rangers, 2002's Rules Of Attraction, 2006's The Plague, 2007's Final Draft, 2013's Labor Day, 2017's Downsizing and 2020's Bad Hair.
He also popped up on the TV shows One Tree Hill, Mercy, Law & Order: SVU, How I Met Your Mother, Friends With Better Lives, CSI: Cyber, Pose, Vampirina and Overcompensating.
In 2022 James sued Sirius XM and Stitcher after they pulled the plug on a podcast deal he said was supposed to guarantee him $700 thousand for 40 episodes.
In legal documents the actor alleged the satellite radio company reneged on the deal and he was seeking damages because he turned down other work to focus on the show's development.
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James is survived by his wife Kimberly and their six children: Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 12, Emilia, nine, Gwendolyn, seven, and Jeremiah, four
However, in early 2024, a California court dismissed the case, ruling that no binding contract existed.
James spoke honestly about his family's financial woes in social media posts about his cancer diagnosis, explaining how he had been left unable to work and provide for his wife and children during his gruelling treatment.
His extensive medical bills and living costs contributed to the hardship as James moved from the family's remote Texas ranch, which they bought in 2020 after years living in Los Angeles, to an apartment closer to the hospital during treatment.
In December James was forced to sell off memorabilia from the set of Dawson's Creek, bringing in $47,000.
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Meanwhile in September 2025 his co-stars rallied around him, organising a star-studded cast reunion at Broadway's famed Richard Rodgers Theater to help raise funds for their friend.
Organised by James' Dawson's Creek love interest Michelle Williams alongside Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson, the cast reuited for a read through of their show's pilot episode to raise funds for his treatment and the nonprofit F Cancer.