Barbara Bach

Early life

Bach was born Barbara Goldbach in Queens to Marjorie (née McKnight) and Howard Goldbach. Her father was Jewish and of Austrian-Jewish descent, while her mother was a Catholic of Irish descent; Bach and her siblings were raised in their mother's Catholic faith. 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.

She was raised in Rosedale, Queens, and 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 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.

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."{{cite news| url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20085500,00.html

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, both of whom assisted in the venture. Bach and Ringo Starr created The Lotus Foundation, a charity with many sub-charities.

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. The two met in 1980, on the set of the film Caveman (1981).

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.

According to the International Vegetarian Union, Bach and Starr practice vegetarianism.

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

Filmography

References

References

1. (1998). "Screen World 1997". Applause Books.
2. Ancestry.com. [https://www.ancestry.com/inst/discoveries/PfRecord?collectionId=61457&recordId=5317091 ''New York, New York, U.S., Birth Index, 1910-1965''] [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2017.
3. (7 July 2022). "On his 80th birthday, Ringo Starr's secret Jewish history". The Forward.
4. Shapiro, Marc. (2021). "Beatle Wives: The Women the Men We Loved Fell in Love With". Riverdale Avenue Books.
5. Beck, Mordechai. (February 22, 2024). "How the Beatles got by with some help from their little-known Jewish friends". [[The Jewish Chronicle]].
6. Carlos N.. (June 17, 2003). "Biography of Barbara Bach". barbara-bach.com.
7. Bach, Barbara. (April 18, 1984). "How Ringo has changed me". Weekend Magazine.
8. Rayl, Salley. (February 23, 1981). "Ringo's Star".
9. (May 9, 1979). "Chevy Chase, Gallagher, Barbara Bach, Ricky Schroder".
10. Harry, Bill. (2003). "The George Harrison Encyclopedia". Virgin Books.
11. Womack, Kenneth. (2016). "The Beatles encyclopedia : everything Fab Four". ABC-CLIO.
12. "Ringo Starr tells Russell Brand about his favorite causes".
13. O'Neill, Terry. (April 27, 1981). "The wedding of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach". [[National Portrait Gallery, London.
14. (October 9, 2017). "Celebrity wedding venue popular with Sir Paul McCartney and Liam Gallagher reopens after £60m renovation". Evening Standard.
15. Taylor, Noreen. (November 1988). "The day the laughing stopped for Barbara and Ringo Starr". [[The Daily Mirror]].
16. "Ringo Starr". International Vegetarian Union.