Ben Affleck's family are grieving following the death of his mother, Chris Affleck. She was also mother to his younger brother, Casey. Chris was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December before her death on June 2. She was 83.
Final wish fulfilled
Chris was given six months to live last Christmas. Her greatest wish after diagnosis was seeing her grandson Atticus graduate high school, her family said. She attended the event with her family on May 31 and died peacefully in her sleep two days later. Her death was confirmed in an obituary in the Boston Globe, which highlighted her work as a teacher and activist.
Chris was a Harvard graduate and public school teacher. She welcomed her first child, Ben, in 1972 with husband Timothy Affleck. Their second son, Casey, was born three years later.
Support for her sons' careers
In a 2012 interview, Ben praised his mother's background: “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 added: “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. She enlisted the help of her friend Patty Collins from Harvard, who became a casting director, to help Ben audition for commercials and film roles.
Chris attended the 1998 Oscars with Ben and Matt Damon. Both actors brought their mothers as dates after being nominated for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Ben and Damon won the Oscar. Ben recalled to Vanity Fair: “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?”
Activism and legacy
Chris retired in 2008 and was a fierce civil rights advocate. She served as one of the original Freedom Riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s to protest racial segregation. She leaves behind her two sons and five grandchildren: Casey’s children, Atticus and Indiana, and Ben’s children, Violet, Fin, and Sam, whom he shares with actress Jennifer Garner.
