Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach (born Barbara Goldbach on August 28, 1946)[1][2] is an American actress and model, best known for her role as the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. She is married to English musician and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

Barbara Bach
Barbara Bach in 1977
Born	Barbara Goldbach August 28, 1946 Queens, New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1965–1986
Spouse(s)	Count Augusto Gregorini ​ ​ (m. 1966; div. 1978)​ Ringo Starr ​ ​ (m. 1981)​
Children	2, including Francesca Gregorini

Early life

Bach was born Barbara Goldbach, in New York City, in the Queens neighborhood of Rosedale, one of two daughters born to Howard Irwin Goldbach, a police officer of European Jewish heritage, and Marjorie Mary Goldbach (née McKnight), an Irish homemaker.[3] In 1964, she graduated from the all-girl Dominican Commercial High School in Jamaica, Queens.[4] The following year, she shortened her last name to Bach and began modeling professionally, appearing in catalogs and fashion magazines.

Career

Bach was one of the most sought-after faces of the 1960s, working with the Eileen Ford Agency in New York, appearing on catalogs and the front covers of several international fashion magazines such as Seventeen (1965 and 1966), Vogue USA (July 1966) photographed by Richard Avedon, ELLE France (1966), Gioia Italy (1967–1970), and Figurino Brazil (1970).

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, directed by Franco Rossi and produced by Dino de Laurentiis.

In 1972, Bach co-starred with two other Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet, in the mystery Black Belly of the Tarantula (a giallo film) and appeared in other Italian films.

In 1977, Bach portrayed the Russian spy Anya Amasova in the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Bach remarked after the film that Bond is "a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets."[5] The following year she appeared in the movie Force 10 from Navarone. She lost a role to actress Shelley Hack when she auditioned for season four of the television series Charlie's Angels.[6] During an interview with Johnny Carson on May 9, 1979, she said that she lost the audition for Charlie's Angels because they felt she was too sophisticated in attitude and look, and thought that she was not American, even though she was born in Rosedale and grew up in Jackson Heights, both in Queens, New York City. They asked her manager if she could play an American.[7] Bach has 28 films to her credit. 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.

Charity work

In 1991, Bach co-founded the Self Help Addiction Recovery Program (SHARP) with Pattie Boyd, the former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton,[8] both of whom assisted in the venture.[9] Bach and Ringo Starr created The Lotus Foundation, a charity with many sub-charities.

Personal 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, before divorcing in 1975.[6] Bach married British musician Ringo Starr, formerly of The Beatles, at Marylebone Town Hall on 27 April 1981.[10][11] The two met in 1980, on the set of the film Caveman (1981).[6]

Bach struggled with alcoholism and heavy drug use in her past, and along with her husband, checked into a rehab in 1988 for four weeks. The couple have remained sober ever since.[12]

According to the International Vegetarian Union, Bach and Starr practise vegetarianism.[13]

She is fluent in Italian and has a working knowledge of French and Spanish.[7]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1968	L'Odissea (a.k.a. The Adventures of Ulysses)	Nausicaa
1971	Mio padre Monsignore	Chiara
	La Tarantola dal ventre nero (a.k.a. Black Belly of the Tarantula)	Jenny
	La Corta notte delle bambole di vetro (a.k.a. Paralyzed/Short Night of Glass Dolls)	Mira Svoboda
	Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide (a.k.a. A Few Hours of Sunlight/A Little Sun in Cold Water)	Héloïse/Elvire
1972	I Predatori si muovono all'alba	Helen
1973	Paolo il caldo (a.k.a. The Sensual Man/The Sensuous Sicilian)	Anna
	Il maschio ruspante	Rema
	L' Ultima chance (a.k.a. Stateline Motel / Last Chance / Motel of Fear)	Emily
1974	Il Cittadino si ribella (a.k.a. Street Law/The Citizen Rebels)	Barbara
1975	Il Lupo dei mari (a.k.a. Legend of the Sea Wolf/Larsen, Wolf of the Seven Seas)	Maud Brewster
1977	Ecco noi per esempio	Ludovica
	The Spy Who Loved Me	Anya Amasova
1978	Force 10 from Navarone	Maritza Petrovich
1979	L' Isola degli uomini pesce (a.k.a. Island of the Fishmen/Screamers)	Amanda Marvin
	L' Umanoide (a.k.a. The Humanoid)	Lady Agatha
	Jaguar Lives	Anna Thompson
	Il Fiume del grande caimano (a.k.a. Alligators/The Big Alligator River/The Great Alligator)	Alice Brandt
	Alligator	Alice Brandt
1980	Up the Academy	Bliss
1981	Caveman	Lana
	The Unseen	Jennifer Fast
1982	The Cooler (11 min. short)
1983	Princess Daisy	Vanessa Valerian
1984	Give My Regards to Broad Street	Journalist
1986	To the North of Katmandu

References

1. Barbara Goldbach, born in Queens August 28, 1946. On the 1946 birth index for the city of New York, available on the genealogy website Ancestry.
2. "Bach, Barbara". Astro Databank. Retrieved March 2, 2020.Bach,_Barbara
3. Carlos N. (2003-06-17). "Biography of Barbara Bach". barbara-bach.com. Retrieved 2016-02-24. Biography based on information from press interviews, books and articles of newspapers & magazines from Italy, USA, Spain, France and Australia (1965-now).
4. Bach, Barbara (1984-04-18). "How Ringo has changed me". Weekend Magazine. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
5. Jarvis, Jeff (1983-07-18). "Bond's Beauties". 20 (3). People. Retrieved 2016-02-24.
6. Rayl, Salley (1981-02-23). "Ringo's Star". People. 15 (7). Retrieved 2016-02-24.
7. "Chevy Chase, Gallagher, Barbara Bach, Ricky Schroder". The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Season 17. Episode 134. May 9, 1979. NBC.
8. Harry, Bill (2003). The George Harrison Encyclopedia. London: Virgin Books. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-7535-0822-0.
9. Womack, Kenneth (2016). The Beatles encyclopedia : everything Fab Four. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4408-4426-3. OCLC 953387176.
10. O'Neill, Terry (1981-04-27). "The wedding of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
11. "Celebrity wedding venue popular with Sir Paul McCartney and Liam Gallagher reopens after £60m renovation". Evening Standard. 9 October 2017. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
12. https://noreentaylorjournalist.com/portfolio/the-day-the-laughing-stopped-for-barbara-and-ringo-starr/
13. "Ringo Starr". International Vegetarian Union.

External links

• Barbara Bach at IMDb