See Bond Girl Barbara Bach Now at 74
She hasn't acted onscreen since 1986, but she's still a public figure thanks to her rock star husband.
In the 1977 James Bond film, The Spy Who Loved Me, American actor and model Barbara Bach starred opposite returning 007, Roger Moore, as KGB spy Anya Amasova, otherwise known as Triple X. In classic Bond fashion, Anya is both Bond's love interest and possible enemy, and Bach's sharp performance made her one of fans' all-time favorite Bond girls.
Prior to playing the secret agent, Bach had mostly been known as an in-demand model and the star of many Italian films. (In fact, The Spy Who Loved Me was her first English-language credit.) But despite the fame Bond brought her, Bach stopped acting not long after it was released. Today, she lives a fairly private life—aside from being married to one of the world's biggest rock stars, that is. Read on to learn more about Bach's life today.
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Bach has been retired from acting since 1986.
After The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach went on to appear in more movies, both Italian and otherwise, including The Humanoid and The Unseen. She was also in the running to replace Kate Jackson on the TV series Charlie's Angels but lost out on the part because producers thought she seemed too sophisticated. In 1986, she appeared in a short called To the North of Kathmandu, which would ultimately be her last screen credit.
The former actor then retreated into a much more private life.
She was briefly an Italian countess.
Bach married her first husband, Augusto Count Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna, in 1966. In addition to being a businessman, Gregorini is Italian nobility, making Bach a countess. The couple had two children together, Francesa and Gianni, before divorcing in 1975. Francesca followed her mother into the entertainment industry and is a successful writer and director.
She fell in love with Ringo Starr.
In 1981, Bach married former Beatle Ringo Starr, and they've been together ever since. Their paths crossed when they were both cast in the 1981 comedy Caveman, and Starr told the Irish Examiner in January 2021 that it was basically love at first sight for him.
"I love the woman. I loved her from when I first saw her at LAX in 1980," he said. "She was at the airport with a boyfriend and I was at the airport checking in, and we happened to be going to Mexico to do the same movie. And that's how it happened. Not like it was a big plan. It was just 'OK, here we go.' And we get on real well together, relax together."
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The couple started a foundation together.
Starr and Bach have a charity called the The Lotus Foundation, which casts a fairly wide net with the causes it supports. The website explains, "The objectives of the Lotus Foundation are to fund, support, participate in and promote charitable projects aimed at advancing social welfare in diverse areas including, but not limited to: substance abuse, cerebral palsy, brain tumours, cancer, battered women and their children, homelessness, and animals in need."
Starr is also a visual artist, and 100 percent of the proceeds from the sales of his art goes straight to The Lotus Foundation.
Bach and Starr celebrated 40 years of marriage in 2021.
While Bach and Starr often walk the red carpet at events together, they otherwise keep their personal lives to themselves. However, Starr made an exception when he and Bach celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in April 2021, sharing a photo from their wedding day.
"It was 40 years ago today the love of my life said yes yes yes," Starr captioned the shot. (Fellow Beatles George Harrison and Paul McCartney were also on hand to celebrate the occasion.) "And I said it right back."
Bach is conflicted about her history with Bond.
Though starring in The Spy Who Loved Me brought Bach fame and many new fans, she has her issues with the Bond franchise. Those issues, it seems, had mostly to do with the antiquated gender roles in the classic movies.
In a 1983 issue of People (as reported by Express), Bach called the lead character himself "a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets."
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