Barbara Bach

Barbara Bach, Lady Starkey (née Goldbach; August 27, 1946<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) is an American actress and former model. She played the Bond girl Anya Amasova in The Spy Who Loved Me. She is married to former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

Early life

Bach was born Barbara Goldbach in New York City to Marjorie (née McKnight) and Howard Goldbach.<ref name="forward">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Shapiro>Template:Cite book</ref> Her father was Jewish and of Austrian-Jewish descent, while her mother was a Catholic of Irish descent;<ref name=Shapiro/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Bach and her siblings were raised in their mother's Catholic faith.<ref name=Shapiro/><ref name=marzlock>Template:Cite web</ref> Her father, who had recently retired from the United States Military at the time of her birth, worked as a police officer for the New York City Police Department.<ref name=Shapiro/>

She was raised in Rosedale, Queens, and graduated from Dominican Commercial High School, an all-girls school, in 1964.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The following year, she shortened her surname 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 1971, 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.

Bach and Jean Sorel in a scene from Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)

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."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=People>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="TonightShow">Template:Cite episode</ref>

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,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> both of whom assisted in the venture.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Bach and Ringo Starr created The Lotus Foundation, a charity with many sub-charities.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Bach's first marriage was to Italian aristocrat and businessman Augusto, Count Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna. The couple had two children together, daughter Francesca and son Gianni, before divorcing in 1975.<ref name=People /> Bach married British musician Ringo Starr, formerly of the Beatles, at Marylebone Town Hall on April 27, 1981.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The two met in 1980, on the set of the film Caveman (1981).<ref name=People />

Bach struggled with alcoholism and heavy drug use and, along with her husband, Ringo Starr, checked into a rehab in 1988 for four weeks. The couple have remained sober ever since.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

According to the International Vegetarian Union, Bach and Starr practice vegetarianism.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

She is fluent in Italian and has a working knowledge of French and Spanish.<ref name="TonightShow" />

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1968	Odissea	Nausicaa	6 episodes
1971	Mio padre Monsignore	Chiara
	The Black Belly of the Tarantula	Jenny
	Short Night of Glass Dolls	Mira Svoboda
	A Few Hours of Sunlight	Héloïse / Elvire
1973	The Sensual Man	Anna
	Il maschio ruspante	Rema
	Stateline Motel	Emily
1974	Street Law	Barbara
1975	Legend of the Sea Wolf	Maud Brewster
1977	Ecco noi per esempio	Ludovica
	The Spy Who Loved Me	Major Anya Amasova
1977	The Mask of Alexander Cross	Agent Judson	TV film
1978	Force 10 from Navarone	Maritza Petrovich
1979	Island of the Fishmen	Amanda Marvin
	The Humanoid	Lady Agatha
	Jaguar Lives!	Anna Thompson
	The Great Alligator River	Alice Brandt
1980	Up the Academy	Bliss
1981	Caveman	Lana
	The Unseen	Jennifer Fast
1983	Princess Daisy	Vanessa Valerian	2 episodes
1984	Give My Regards to Broad Street	Journalist	Cameo
1986	To the North of Katmandu	Polo Player	Cameo

External links

• Template:IMDb name

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