Ben and Casey Affleck’s Mother Passes Away After Battling Cancer

Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck are mourning the loss of their mother, Christopher Anne Affleck, who passed away on June 2 at the age of 83. According to an obituary in The Boston Globe, she died peacefully in her sleep.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2025, Chris was initially given six months to live. Her greatest wish was to see her grandson graduate high school, and she fulfilled this wish by attending the graduation with her family on May 31, 2026, passing away two days later.

Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck’s mother, Chris, died at the age of 83 in June. (Bill Brett/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Chris was born in 1942 in New York City and was an active participant in numerous social movements. She taught literacy classes in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, protested against the Vietnam War, and embraced the 1960s counterculture.

She graduated from Harvard as one of the first women from Radcliffe, eventually spending 35 years as a public school teacher. Known for her dedication, Chris treated every student equally, whether they were from Haiti or a local community.

“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,” the obituary states.

After retiring in 2008, Chris volunteered for President Barack Obama’s campaign, traveled to Israel/Palestine, and became an organizer for the Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine.

Chris and her ex-husband, Timothy Affleck, welcomed Ben in 1972 and Casey in 1975, before their divorce in 1984. Both sons credit their parents for nurturing their artistic talents from a young age. Casey mentioned in 2013 that they “started out as children doing this,” partly due to their father’s involvement in theater and their mother’s encouragement.

Ben’s initiation into acting came through connections, as he mentioned to Parade in 2007, “A friend of my mom’s was a casting director…I had a couple of acting jobs that had just enough exposure to give me the option to continue if I wanted to.” His big break came in 1998 when he won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay with Matt Damon for “Good Will Hunting.”

Ben and Casey credit their parents for instilling a love of art in them from a young age. (BG004/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)

During the award ceremony, both Ben and Damon brought their mothers as their guests. Ben recalled to Vanity Fair in 2023 how “We were sitting next to our moms, and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms.”

“There was nobody else that was going to go. That was it. Of course, our moms were gonna go. That was really innocent and not faked,” he shared.

Chris Affleck is survived by her sons and five grandchildren: Casey’s children, Indiana and Atticus, and Ben’s children, Violet, Fin, and Sam.