Chris Affleck, mother of Ben and Cassey Affleck, dies at 83

Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck are mourning the loss of the woman who helped shape both their lives–and their Hollywood dreams.

Chris Anne Affleck, a longtime public school teacher, civil rights advocate and the mother of the Oscar-winning brothers, died peacefully in her sleep on June 2. She was 83.

Her family said she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December.

Long before her sons became Academy winners, Chris was encouraging their ambitions. After divorcing Timothy Affleck when Ben was 12, she helped open doors for her eldest son by introducing him to her former Harvard roommate, casting director Patty Collins, who connected him with early auditions.

Ben has often credited his mother for her dedication to education and public service.

“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,” Ben told The Hollywood Reporter in 2012.

“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.”

Chris also shared one of Hollywood’s most unforgettable family moments, attending the 1998 Oscars with Ben after Good Will Hunting earned multiple nominations.

“We were sitting next to our moms and we won, and we kind of hugged our moms," Ben later told Vanity Fair.

“I remember thinking, being insecure, like, ‘Why? Why is it weird that we’re bringing our moms?’ Who else do you think we would bring?”

According to her family, Chris' final wish was to see her grandson Atticus graduate high school. She attended the ceremony on May 31 before passing away peacefully two days later.