James Van Der Beek was not only a loving dad in real life, but in his final onscreen movie role, he also played a father to Noah Beck in Sidelined 2: Intercepted.
Originating the role in 2024’s Sidelined: The QB and Me, the actor, 48, reprised his role as Leroy Lahey, the father of Drayton Lahey (Beck), in Sidelined 2: Intercepted, which premiered on Tubi in November 2025. (His final TV credit will be in the series Elle, releasing this summer).
Across the two films, Van Der Beek’s character transitions from a tough, well-meaning father, who sets high expectations for his son’s success as a high school football quarterback, to being a dad that Drayton can lean on for support after some difficult setbacks in his athletic career.
“I’m just trying so hard to not screw up,” Drayton said to Leroy in the sequel, as the father and son have a heart-to-heart while sitting in the football stands. Leroy responded, “Well, you’re going to screw up. That’s about the only guarantee you got. But you got to let go of the ‘should’ves.’”
“There’s something you taught me, whether you know it or not, which is that you could spend so much time obsessing over the past that you just fail to see what’s right in front of you,” Van Der Beek’s character added, as they embraced.
As a father to six in real life, stepping into a parental role onscreen was likely somewhat familiar. In his final Instagram post, dated Jan. 23, Van Der Beek even shared a touching tribute to his 12-year-old daughter on her birthday, writing, “I’m so insanely grateful to have you in my life.”
On Wednesday, his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, shared on Instagram that the Dawson’s Creek star lost his battle with colorectal cancer. He initially announced in November 2024 that he had “been privately dealing with this diagnosis” since August 2023.
When The Hollywood Reporter chatted with Beck ahead of the release of Sidelined 2 last November, he struggled to share his experience working with the veteran actor in a few short words, admitting, “I could sit and talk about how amazing James was to me for an hour if you have it.”
Since Beck is just getting started in his acting career, he was notably appreciative of everything he learned firsthand from Van Der Beek.
“With James, he has such a presence to him, and you can’t not be present in a scene with him,” Beck explained. “I learned so much, and I’ve just felt like I had this front row seat to such an acting masterclass. In our scenes, he’s Drayton’s father, so when he’s yelling or when he’s being stern with me, I’m just sitting there and I caught myself a few times just really being in awe of him, and I was like, oh shit, I forgot it’s a wide [shot] so I have to be in this. So there were times when I fell out of it and just wanted to enjoy what I’m seeing, what people literally pay to come see and I’m getting paid to do this with him. It’s pretty surreal. And off camera, he was such a gentleman and just such an amazing guy to have on set. He’s such a mentor to me.”
At the premiere for Sidelined 2, while acknowledging castmembers who couldn’t attend, Tubi chief content officer Adam Lewinson also called the actor “a dear friend and somebody who proved to be a true mentor to the Sidelined family, Mr. James Van Der Beek.”
In a tribute shared on his Instagram Story on Wednesday, Beck also wrote, “Man, this one hurts. James u were the best, so kind, so caring, so thoughtful, so talented, great father, and just an absolute inspiration of a human being. I feel so incredibly lucky to have met u and share the screen with u as my father. U were the best mentor I could ask for… My thoughts are w u and ur family … fly high JVB.”
The social media star added in a separate post, alongside a photo of their Sidelined 2 characters, “Bye for now.”
