Chris Anne Affleck died on June 2 at age 83 after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in December. Her family said she died peacefully in her sleep two days after attending grandson Atticus's high school graduation on May 31.
She had been given six months to live when doctors diagnosed the disease, yet she lived long enough to reach the milestone she wanted most. Chris Anne Affleck was the mother of Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck and left five grandchildren: Atticus, Indiana, Violet, Fin and Sam.
Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck
Ben Affleck has described his mother as a public school teacher with a Harvard education, saying, "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," in 2012. He also said, "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," about the 1998 Oscars.
That family role ran through the public parts of their lives as well. Chris Anne Affleck helped connect Ben Affleck with Patty Collins for commercials and TV movie auditions, and she attended the 1998 Oscars with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon when they won the Oscar for Good Will Hunting in the screenplay category.
December and May 31
The December diagnosis set a short timeline. Her family said she was given six months to live, but she was present on May 31 for Atticus's high school graduation before dying in her sleep on June 2.
Christine Anne Boldt, born in New York City in December 1942, later graduated from Harvard University and spent 35 years as a public school teacher before retiring in 2008. She was also one of the original freedom riders in the Deep South in the 1960s, a part of her life that sat far from the fame attached to her sons.
The next unanswered point is medical, not personal: what specific form of pancreatic cancer she had and what treatment, if any, she received were not stated.
