Barbara Bach
Barbara Bach | |
|---|---|
| Born | Barbara Goldbach |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1968–1986 |
| Spouse(s) | Augusto Gregorini (1968-1978) Ringo Starr (1981-present) |
Barbara Bach (born August 27, 1947) is an American actress and model best-known as the Bond girl from the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). She is married to musician Ringo Starr, former drummer of The Beatles.
Biography
Early life
Bach was born Barbara Goldbach in Rosedale, Queens, New York City, New York, the daughter of Marjorie and Howard I. (1922-2001) Goldbach, a policeman. She was the oldest of five children. Her father was Austrian Jewish and her mother was Irish Catholic, and she attended a Catholic high school, Dominican Commercial, in Jamaica, Queens.[1] Bach left school at sixteen to become a model, quickly rising to the ranks of top models.
Career
In 1971, Bach co-starred with two other Bond girls, Claudine Auger and Barbara Bouchet in the mystery La Tarantola dal ventre nero (a movie of the giallo kind) and had small roles in other Italian films.
In 1977, her role as the Russian spy Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me gained her recognition as an international sex symbol. Although her character Anya is seen as the first Bond girl who is an equal to Bond, since she is also an experienced spy, Bach still walked away from the film saying that Bond is "a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets."[2] The following year she appeared in the movie Force 10 from Navarone. She lost a role to actress Shelley Hack when she auditioned for the television series Charlie's Angels.[3] Bach has 28 films to her credit. She has not worked as an actress since the mid-1980s. She appeared in Playboy several times, from 1977 to 1981, in 1985, and in 2008.
Personal life
Bach met Italian businessman Augusto Gregorini on a flight to Rome in 1966. They were married in 1968 and moved to Italy where they had a daughter, singer-songwriter Francesca Gregorini (born August 7, 1968) and a son Gianni (born in 1972). In 1975, Bach separated from Gregorini and moved back to the United States with her two children.
Bach met Ringo Starr on the set of the film Caveman in February 1980, and they were married on April 27, 1981, a few weeks after the film's release. In recent years Bach has accompanied Starr on his tours and has appeared on some of Ringo's music videos, playing on some of his songs.
Bach holds a master's degree (UCLA, 1993) in psychology. She started the Self Help Addiction Recovery Program (S.H.A.R.P.) with the help of George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Patti Boyd, who was a former wife of both Harrison and Clapton. Bach and Starr created The Lotus Foundation, a charity with many sub-charities.
Joe Walsh, guitarist with the band, the Eagles, married Barbara Bach's sister, Marjorie Bach, in Los Angeles on December 13 2008.
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) | |
| Il Maschio ruspante | Rema | |
| L' Ultima chance (a.k.a. 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 | |
| The Spy Who Loved Me | Anya Amasova | |
| 1978 | Force 10 from Navarone | Maritza Petrovich |
| 1979 | L' Isola degli uomini pesce (a.k.a. The Island of the Fishmen / Island of Mutations / 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 | |
| 1980 | Up the Academy | Bliss |
| 1981 | Caveman | Lana |
| The Unseen | Jennifer Fast | |
| 1982 | The Cooler | |
| 1983 | Princess Daisy | Vanessa Valerian |
| 1984 | Give My Regards to Broad Street | Journalist |
| 1986 | To the North of Katmandu |
Footnotes
- ^ Bach, Barbara (April 18, 1984). How Ringo has changed me. Weekend Magazine. Accessed 2006-12-13.
- ^ Jarvis, Jeff (July 18, 1983). "Bond's Beauties". People, Vol. 20, No. 3. Accessed 2009-05-05.
- ^ Rayl, Salley (February 23, 1981). "Ringo's Star". People, Vol. 15, No. 7. Accessed 2009-05-05.
External links
- Barbara Bach at IMDb
- Barbara Bach at AllMovie
- 1947 births
- Living people
- Actors from New York City
- American expatriates in the United Kingdom
- American female models
- American film actors
- New York City Jews
- City University of New York people
- Irish Americans
- People associated with The Beatles
- People from Queens
- Queens College, City University of New York alumni
- Ringo Starr