Ben Affleck mother news turned grim on June 2, when Chris Anne Affleck died at 83 after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in December. She died two days after attending grandson Atticus’s graduation with her family on May 31.
Her family said she had been given six months to live in December, a timeline that puts her final months into sharp relief. She still made it to the graduation, then died peacefully in her sleep.
Chris Anne Affleck and Harvard
Christine Anne Boldt was born in New York City in December 1942, graduated from Harvard University and spent 35 years as a public school teacher before retiring in 2008. Ben Affleck said in 2012 that his mother taught public school, went to Harvard, got her master’s there and taught fifth and sixth grade in a public school.
That background made her more than a family figure in the usual celebrity sense. She was also described as a fierce civil rights advocate, and she served as one of the original freedom riders who went into the Deep South during the 1960s.
Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, and Atticus
Chris and Timothy Affleck welcomed Ben in 1972, and Casey Affleck was born in 1975. Her family said her greatest wish after the diagnosis was seeing grandson Atticus graduate high school, and that wish was met on May 31 before her death on June 2.
Ben Affleck also credited her with opening an early career door by connecting him with her former Harvard roommate Patty Collins, who helped him audition for commercials and TV movies. She later appeared with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon at the 1998 Oscars after they were nominated for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting, and Ben Affleck and Matt Damon won the Oscar for best original screenplay for Good Will Hunting.
Family legacy after June 2
The surviving family named in the announcement includes Casey Affleck’s children with Summer Phoenix, Atticus and Indiana, and Ben Affleck’s children with Jennifer Garner, Violet, Fin and Sam. For a family long tied to the Oscars through Good Will Hunting, Argo and Manchester by the Sea, the immediate story is not awards but absence: a mother who lived long enough to see one last graduation and died days later.
