Celebrity Nooz: Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach (Actress) - The Spy Who Loved Me

Updated: 11/28/23

Name: Barbara Bach

Birth Name: Barbara Ann Goldbach

Born: August 28, 1946 in Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Claim To Fame: Barbara Bach is an American actress and former model best known for playing the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Family Life: Bach's first marriage was to Italian businessman Augusto, Count Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna. The couple had two children together, daughter Francesca and son Gianni, and later divorced in 1975. She has been married to Beatles drummer Ringo Starr since 1981.

Info: Born to Marjorie Mary Goldbach and Howard Irwin Goldbach, a New York City Policeman.

She has three siblings; one older brother and a younger brother and sister.

Was raised Roman Catholic.

She's of Jewish and Irish descent.

Graduated from Dominican Commercial High School, an all-girls school, in 1964.

The following year, she shortened her surname to Bach and began modeling professionally, appearing in numerous catalogs and fashion magazines such as Seventeen and Vogue.

Began working with the Eileen Ford Agency in New York in the '60s.

She's fluent in Italian and has a working knowledge of French and Spanish.

Attended the famous Beatles concert at Shea Stadium, 15 years before she would meet her future husband, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

Bach struggled with alcoholism and drug use and, along with her husband, Ringo Starr, checked into a rehab in 1988 for four weeks. The couple has remained sober ever since.

Has involved herself in charity work, including the Live Aid connected "Fashion Aid", "The Romanian Angel" (which was set up with Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, George and John's widows), and The Lotus Foundation (setup by Bach and Ringo Starr).

Barbara worked with the "Parents For Safe Food" Campaign.

In 1991, Bach co-founded the Self Help Addiction Recovery Program (SHARP) with Pattie Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton.

Bach and Starr are vegetarian.

Trivia: Her acting career started in Italy, where she played Nausicaa in L'Odissea in 1968, an eight-hour long TV adaptation of Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, produced by Dino de Laurentiis.

In 1977, Bach gained great attention when she portrayed the Russian spy Anya Amasova in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

In 1978, she appeared in the movie Force 10 from Navarone with Harrison Ford and Robert Shaw.

It was between Bach and Shelley Hack to replace Kate Jackson on Charlie's Angels (1976). The New York-born Bach was deemed too European and sophisticated for the role and it was ultimately given to Hack; she only lasted one year.

She was featured in a pictorial in Playboy in January 1981. She also had a cameo in a September 1987 special issue on the Bond girls.

She met Ringo Starr in 1980, on the set of the film Caveman (1981).

After Starr and Bach suffered a near-fatal car crash they married less than a year later.

Where Are They Now: Earlier this year, the former Bond girl and the musician celebrated their 42nd wedding anniversary. The two seem to be as in love as when they first met. In recent years, Bach has accompanied Starr on his tours, but no entertainment projects in the works.

Could Bach return for a future James Bond film? Only time will tell. Maybe Ringo will do the title song.

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