{"id":822033,"date":"2026-07-25T01:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822033\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T01:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T01:44:13","slug":"ben-and-casey-afflecks-mother-dies-aged-83","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/822033\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben and Casey Affleck\u2019s mother dies aged 83"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mother of Oscar-winning<\/a> brothers Ben<\/a> and Casey Affleck<\/a> has died aged 83, just two days after fulfilling her final wish to watch one of her grandchildren graduate from high school.<\/p>\n

Christopher Anne \u201cChris\u201d Affleck<\/a> died in early June, six months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2025, according to an obituary<\/a> published by her family.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Ben Affleck brought his mother to the 1998 Academy Awards, where he and Matt Damon won for Good Will Hunting.\u00a0WireImage<\/p>\n

Her final wish was to watch the graduation of her grandson Atticus. \u201cShe did so, attending with her family on May 31, 2026. She died peacefully, in her sleep, two days later,\u201d the obituary shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Born Christopher Anne Boldt in New York City in 1942, Affleck attended Radcliffe College, becoming one of the early generations of Radcliffe women to receive Harvard diplomas.<\/p>\n

She later earned a master\u2019s degree and spent 35 years teaching in public schools before retiring in 2008.<\/p>\n

Long before her sons became Hollywood stars<\/a>, Affleck was also involved in political and civil rights causes.<\/p>\n

Influenced by her stepfather, Sam, she taught literacy classes in Mississippi during the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign.<\/p>\n

She and former husband Timothy Affleck welcomed Ben in 1972 and Casey in 1975. The couple later divorced when Ben was around 12.<\/p>\n

Affleck raised the brothers in Massachusetts and was a strong supporter of their interest in acting.<\/p>\n

\"Casey<\/p>\n

Chris Affleck supported both of her sons as they pursued acting careers from a young age.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Ben has previously credited his mother with helping him enter the industry after she connected him with casting director Patty Collinge, her former Harvard roommate.<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of my mom\u2019s was a casting director, so really as kind of a lark, I had a couple of acting jobs,\u201d he told Parade<\/a> in 2007. <\/p>\n

Ben was accompanied by his mum at the 1998 Academy Awards, where he and childhood friend Matt Damon<\/a> won best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting<\/a>. Damon also brought his mother to the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms,\u201d Ben recalled in a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was nobody else that was going to go. That was it. Of course, our moms were gonna go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon holding their Oscar Awards backstage at Academy Awards Show.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Ben would go on to earn a second Academy Award when Argo was named best picture in 2013, while Casey won best actor for his performance in Manchester by the Sea in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris was suitably proud of her descendants\u2019 achievements, but she was delighted when they questioned, defied, or cleverly engaged authority,\u201d the obituary read.<\/p>\n

After retiring from teaching, Affleck volunteered during Barack Obama\u2019s presidential campaign and became involved with the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine following a visit to the region in 2009.<\/p>\n

Affleck is survived by Ben and Casey, as well as her five grandchildren: Indiana, Violet, Atticus, Fin and Sam, who, the obituary noted, \u201cwere the animating force of her last two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mother of Oscar-winning brothers Ben and Casey Affleck has died aged 83, just two days after fulfilling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":822034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134],"class_list":["post-822033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}