Barbara Bach, known for her role as the Bond girl Triple X, was never a damsel waiting for the spy who loved her to swoop in and save the day.
What she truly wanted was her own real-life hero, her musician husband Sir Richard Starkey, better known to the world as Ringo Starr.
She had already built a strong career, especially through her work in Italian cinema. Now 78, Bach was at the height of her professional success when she starred in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. In it, she portrayed a woman who could be both a romantic partner and a formidable rival to the famously flirtatious secret agent James Bond, played at the time by Roger Moore.
In a 1983 interview with People, Bach didn’t hold back her opinion of Bond, calling him “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.”
Moore himself shared a similar view. Back in 1973, the same year he debuted as Bond in Live and Let Die, he told People that both he and the character were “male chauvinist pigs,” adding with tongue-in-cheek honesty, “All my life I’ve been trying to get women out of brassieres and pants.”
Before she was cast in The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach had already appeared in several Italian films, including one alongside two other iconic Bond girls — Claudine Auger from Thunderball (1965) and Barbara Bouchet from Casino Royale (1967). The three women starred together in Black Belly of the Tarantula, a 1971 Italian murder mystery.
Bach’s breakout performance as a Bond girl turned the brunette beauty into a fan favorite and opened doors for her throughout the film industry.
After her role as Major Anya Amasova — the KGB agent she portrayed in the Bond film — she landed leading parts in Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy, a 1980 comedy directed by Robert Downey Sr., and Caveman, a 1981 slapstick film where she appeared alongside Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, and her future husband Ringo Starr, now 82.
In Caveman, Starr plays a Neanderthal who initially pursues Lana, the character Bach plays, but ultimately rejects her for another partner.
Of course, that plot bears no resemblance whatsoever to what unfolded in their real lives.
The two first crossed paths at the Los Angeles airport as they were both preparing to fly to Mexico for the filming of Caveman.
In a 1981 Playboy feature (as cited by People), Bach addressed the rumors surrounding their relationship. “So much nonsense has been written about us, and none of it is even interesting,” she said. “The truth is, we didn’t get together until the very end of filming Caveman. While we were working, we got along perfectly well, but we each had other people in our lives, our own friends. Then suddenly, during the final week of shooting, something shifted. We went from friendly affection to falling in love.”
In an interview with the Irish Examiner in 2021, the Beatles legend couldn’t help but praise his wife, whom he has now been married to for more than 40 years.
“I adore her. I fell for her the moment I first saw her at LAX in 1980,” Starr said. “She was there with a boyfriend, and I was checking in, and we both happened to be heading to Mexico to work on the same movie. That’s how everything began. I feel blessed to have her in my life, that’s really all I can say.”
Ringo Starr, a global icon, is the legendary drummer of the most influential band in music history: The Beatles. And Barbara Bach happened to be in the audience during their famous 1965 performance at New York’s Shea Stadium, where Starr played alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney as part of the Fab Four.
Bach admits she attended the show, but she wasn’t actually much of a Beatles fan at the time. She went with her friend Joe Walsh and her sister Marjorie, who was such an enthusiastic Beatles devotee that she showed up wearing a Beatles wig.
“My sister Marjorie was obsessed with the Beatles,” Bach told People in a 1981 interview. “I preferred Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, and the Rolling Stones.”
Marjorie eventually married Walsh, who later became the Eagles’ guitarist in 1975. Walsh also performed with his future brother-in-law in Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, the rotating rock supergroup Starr leads on tour.
Just months after John Lennon’s tragic death, Bach and Starr married on April 27, 1981, with guests that included McCartney and Harrison.
From that point on, the two have rarely been apart.
Right before their wedding, they survived a terrifying car accident. Their vehicle swerved to avoid a truck, flipped twice, and finally came to rest. Reflecting on that experience, Starr said, “We decided we wouldn’t spend any time apart. The longest we’ve been separated was five days, and even that felt too long. I want to live every minute with Barbara.” The couple later went to rehab together in 1988 and have remained sober ever since.
When they celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2021, Starr shared a photo from their wedding day — Paul McCartney and George Harrison visible in the picture — with the caption: “It was 40 years ago today the love of my life said yes yes yes.”
Their devotion extends beyond their blended family — Starr has three children from his marriage to the late Maureen Cox, and Bach has two children from her former husband, Augusto Gregorini. Together, they run The Lotus Foundation, a charity that supports a range of causes including animal welfare, addiction recovery, homelessness support, and cancer initiatives. Starr, who is also an artist, donates all proceeds from his artwork to the foundation.
There’s no doubt that if it were possible, they’d happily be together “Eight Days a Week.” As Bach put it, “I love the man, and that’s it.”
Starr added, “There’s no escape… I think I love Barbara just as much today as I did when we first met — and I’m incredibly lucky that she loves me and that we’re still together.”
Stories like theirs are a joy to hear. The love shared between former Bond girl Barbara Bach and her rockstar husband Ringo Starr is truly inspiring, and we can’t wait to see how they continue to shape the world through their charity work and their life together!