The Bond girl Triple X, played by Barbara Bach, didn’t require saving from the spy who adored her.
Her rocker husband, Sir Richard Starkey, also known as Ringo Starr, was the hero she was searching for.
Bach, a 75-year-old model and performer, was at the height of her career in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, where she portrayed the possible enemy and love interest of Roger Moore’s character, James Bond, the womanizing 007 agent.
Bach described Bond as “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets,” according to a 1983 People article.
Moore concurred, saying in an interview with People in 1973—the year he played in his first Bond movie, Live and Let Die—that “Bond, like myself, is a male chauvinist pig.” I’ve spent my entire life advocating for women to stop wearing pants and brassieres.
Before starring in The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach starred in a number of Italian movies, including Black Belly of the Tarantula, a 1971 murder mystery, alongside other Bond Girls Barbara Bouchet from Casino Royale (1967) and Claudine Auger from Thunderball (1965).
The brown-haired beauty became an all-time favorite and paved the way for her acting career with her iconic role as a Bond girl.
Following her portrayal of the fictional KGB agent Major Anya Amasova, she starred in Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy, a 1980 Robert Downey Sr.-directed movie, and Caveman, a 1981 slapstick comedy in which she costarred with Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, and now-82-year-old Ringo Starr.
Bach’s character Lana is the object of Starr’s Neanderthal lust, but he eventually dumps her and chooses a different partner.
The events in actual life are not reflected in the screenplay at all.
The two met at the airport in Los Angeles while they were traveling to the Mexican filming location for Caveman.
According to People, Bach, who was featured in a 1981 Playboy pictorial, claimed that “a lot of garbage has been written about us, none of it interesting.” We weren’t together till the very end of Caveman, to be honest. We got along well at work, but each of us had our own pals and other people. Then, in the final week of shooting, it happened without warning. We transitioned from amicable love to romantic love.
The Beatles singer gushed about his wife, whom he married over forty years ago, in an interview with the Irish Examiner in 2021.
“I adore the gal. When I saw her for the first time at LAX in 1980, I fell in love. I was at the airport checking in, and she was there with a boyfriend. It just so happened that we were both heading to Mexico to work on the same film. And thus it came to pass,” Star remembered. “All I can say is that I’m grateful she’s in my life.”
Starr, of supernova fame, is the drummer for The Beatles, the most influential band in history. Additionally, Bach attended a Beatles performance at Shea Stadium in New York in 1965, where he performed with the late John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney as a member of the Fab Four.
Despite being present, Bach acknowledges that she wasn’t a huge Beatles fan. She was accompanied by her sister Marjorie, who was so enamored of the band that she arrived wearing a Beatles wig, and her friend Joe Walsh.
In a 1981 interview, Bach said, “My sister Marjorie was a Beatles fan.” “I enjoyed the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, and [Bob] Dylan.”
In 1975, Marjorie married Walsh, who later became the guitarist for the Eagles. Walsh also performed with his brother-in-law in the live rock supergroup Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Bach and Starr were married on April 27, 1981, with McCartney and Harrison as guests, just a few months after Lennon’s murder.
Since then, the two have been inseparable.
The car the couple was driving swerved to escape a truck and rolled over twice before coming to a rest in a near-fatal collision just before their wedding.
“We decided we wouldn’t spend any time apart,” Starr stated following the accident. The longest hiatus to yet was five days, which was excessive. I wish I could spend every moment with Barbara.
Additionally, they went to treatment together in 1988 and have remained sober ever since.
In 2021, Starr shared a picture from their wedding day, which included McCartney and Harrison, along with the message, “It was 40 years ago today,” to commemorate the cute couple’s 40th anniversary. My true love said, “Yes, yes, yes.”
In addition to running a nonprofit named The Lotus Foundation, the couple’s love extends beyond their blended family—Bach has two children with her ex-husband, Augusto Gregorini, while Starr has three with her late wife, Maureen Cox. The organization funds a number of initiatives related to cancer, homelessness, substance misuse, and animals. 100% of profits are donated to the organization by Starr, who is also an artist.
They would undoubtedly be together “Eight Days a Week” if they could.
Bach declared, “I just love the man.”
“There is no escape,” Starr continues. I am extremely fortunate that Barbara still loves me and that we are still together. I believe that my love for her is just as strong now as it was when we first met.
We enjoy hearing about love! And the one that’s shared between Barbara Bach, the former Bond girl, and Ringo Starr, her rock star spouse, is really motivational. We look forward to seeing what they do in their life and in their charitable endeavors!
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