Ben Affleck’s mother dies aged 82

Chris Anne Affleck passed away on June 2 after losing her battle with pancreatic cancer, the family announced in a Legacy obituary on Thursday (24.07.26).

Ben Affleck’s mother has died aged 82.

Chris Anne Affleck passed away on June 2 after losing her battle with pancreatic cancer, the family announced in a Legacy obituary on Thursday (24.07.26).

According to the obituary, Chris Anne was told last December that she had just months to live, but was determined to see her grandson’s graduation from high school.

She attended the ceremony on May 31, and died in her sleep days later.

Chris Anne is survived by Ben and his brother Casey, as well as her grandchildren – Casey’s kids Indiana and Atticus, and Ben’s children Fin, Violet and Samuel.

Her obituary revealed details of her life and education, including that she graduated from Harvard University, before going on to teach at public school until she retired in 2008.

She also “taught literacy classes in Mississippi during Freedom Summer, marched against the Vietnam War, and revelled in 1960s counterculture”, according to the obit.

These values extended to the classroom, as “very 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”.

Speaking to Boston magazine about his mother, Casey called her “very conscientious”, and added: “She made us stay inside when Skylab was falling. I couldn’t use the blender until I was 15. I’d go, ‘Mom, I’m not gonna cut my hand off with the f****** blender. I’m 15 years old!’

“She always made us go on family vacations. When you’re a kid, you just want to stay home and hang out with your friends. You don’t want to go to your grandparents’ house.

“But tradition meant a lot to her. She just insisted. We had a lot of fights about that. But now I love it and those are some of my favourite memories.”

Casey and Ben were both encouraged to act by their parents, Chris Anne and Timothy, with their father working as a stage manager, meaning they both grew up around the theatre.

As Chris Anne thought acting would be a good way to keep her boys busy and out of trouble, she and her casting friend Patty Collins encouraged Ben and Casey to audition for commercials, TV shows and local productions – with one of Ben’s first roles coming in a Burger King advert.

He told Parade magazine previously: “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.

“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.”

Ben went on to become one of Hollywood’s most famous actors, with roles in movies such as Good Will Hunting – for which he and Matt Damon won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

Ben took Chris Anne as his date to the Oscars for that ceremony in 1998.

Casey is also a successful actor, with a critically-acclaimed role in 2016 movie Manchester By the Sea, and starring alongside Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the Ocean’s Eleven films.