Ben Affleck’s mother, Chris Anne Affleck, was able to see her final wish fulfilled before her death at 83.
Her family shared the news of her passing on July 24 through an obituary published in The Boston Globe. According to the obituary, she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2025 and was told she had six months to live.
In a touching final chapter, her greatest wish was to live long enough to see one of her grandsons graduate high school — and she did. The obituary said she attended the ceremony with her family on May 31, 2026, and died peacefully in her sleep two days later, on June 2.
Born Christopher Anne Boldt in New York City in 1942, she later received what her obituary described as an ‘elite education’ at the Nightingale-Bamford School. She went on to build a long career in education, including teaching literacy in Mississippi, before retiring from public school teaching in 2008.
“One of the first Radcliffe women to receive a Harvard diploma,” the obituary read. “She eschewed a world of higher-paying careers to spend 35 years as a public school teacher.
“Every student, whether just arrived from Haiti or Cambridge upper crust, was a cherished citizen of her classroom republic, equal to each other and to herself.”
She is survived by five grandchildren. Through Ben, she had Violet, Fin and Sam, while her son Caleb Casey Affleck had Indiana and Atticus.
Chris was also deeply engaged in activism. Inspired by her stepfather, she became involved in the civil rights movement and took part in demonstrations against the Vietnam War. The obituary said she taught literacy classes in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, marched against the Vietnam War and later remained active in causes including water justice and community organizing.
Ben previously reflected on his parents’ background in a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“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.
“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.”
Her connection to Harvard also ended up playing a role in Ben’s early entry into acting, as she introduced him to casting director Patty Collins, a former roommate of hers.
“I got into acting as a young child on account of a sort of arbitrary thing. A friend of my mom’s was a casting director so, really as kind of a lark,” the Pearl Harbour star told Parade in 2007.
“I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to. I followed through with it.”
Casey also spoke about their mother’s encouragement, telling The Boston Magazine last year that she had been ‘really supportive’ of both brothers’ acting pursuits. In 1998, she joined Ben and Matt Damon, along with Damon’s mother, at the Oscars when Good Will Hunting was up for awards and Ben and Matt won Best Original Screenplay.
Ben later looked back on that night during an interview with Vanity Fair in 2023.
“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.”