The mother of Oscar winners Ben and Casey Affleck, Chris, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December before her death in June, aged 83
Ben Affleck’s family are grieving following the death of his mum. Chris Affleck, who is also mum to the star’s younger brother, Casey, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December before her death on June 2
Chris was given six months to live last Christmas, and her greatest wish after her diagnosis was seeing grandson Atticus graduate high school, her family said. Thankfully, she was able to attend the event with her family on May 31 and died peacefully in her sleep two days later. Her death was confirmed in an obituary shared in the Boston Globe, which highlighted her work as teacher and an activist.
The mum-of-two, who was a Harvard graduate and public school teacher, welcomed her first child Ben in 1972 with husband, Timothy Affleck, before the couple’s second son, Casey, was born three years later.
Praising his mum in an interview in 2012, Ben opened up about his parents’ different backgrounds, saying: “My mother taught public school, went to Harvard and then got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school.”
He continued in The Hollywood Reporter : “My dad had a more working-class lifestyle. He didn’t go to college. He was an auto mechanic and a bartender and a janitor at Harvard.”
Chris, who divorced Timothy when Ben was 12, was instrumental in her son’s acting career. Enlisting the help of her pal, Patty Collins, from Harvard, who went on to become a casting director, she helped him audition for commercials and film roles.
A huge supporter of both of her boys, Chris attended the 1998 Oscars alongside Ben and Matt Damon. The actors both brought their mums as their date, after the pair were nominated for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting — a film the duo also starred in alongside Casey.
Ben and Damon went on to win the Oscar, and the film has become a classic.
Speaking to Vanity Fair about sharing the momentous moment with his mum, Ben said: “We were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms. I remember how everyone had made such a big thing out of it as if this was such a novelty.
“I remember thinking, being insecure, like, ‘Why? Why is it weird that we’re bringing our moms?’ Who else do you think we would bring?”
Ben would go on to win his second Oscar, for Best Picture, for Argo in 2012. Meanwhile, Casey would win the Best Actor Oscar in 2017 for his performance in Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea.
Chris retired in 2008 and was a fierce civil rights advocate throughout her life, having served as one of the original Freedom Riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s to protest against racial segregation.
As well as her two sons, she leaves behind her five grandchildren: Casey’s kids, Atticus and Indiana, and Ben’s children, Violet, Fin and Sam, who he shares with actress, Jennifer Garner.
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