Barbara Bach, known for her role as Bond girl Triple X, wasn’t waiting for rescue from the iconic spy who loved her. Instead, she was on the lookout for her own knight in shining armor—her husband, the legendary rocker Sir Richard Starkey, better recognized as Ringo Starr.
Now at 75, Bach, an accomplished actress and model, reached the height of her career with her role in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me, where she portrayed the love interest and potential rival of the charming yet womanizing James Bond, played by Roger Moore.
In a 1983 article in People, Bach described Bond as “a chauvinist pig who uses girls to shield him against bullets.” Moore concurred, stating in a 1973 interview after his debut as Bond in Live and Let Die, “Bond, like myself, is a male chauvinist pig. All my life I’ve been trying to get women out of brassieres and pants.”
Before her iconic role in The Spy Who Loved Me, Bach appeared in Italian films, including one alongside fellow Bond Girls Claudine Auger from Thunderball (1965) and Barbara Bouchet from Casino Royale (1967) in the 1971 murder-mystery Black Belly of the Tarantula.
Her standout performance as Major Anya Amasova, a KGB agent, solidified her status as a beloved Bond girl and opened doors for her acting career. Following her Bond debut, she starred in Mad Magazine Presents Up the Academy, a 1980 film directed by Robert Downey Sr., and in the 1981 comedy Caveman, where she shared the screen with Dennis Quaid, Shelley Long, and Ringo Starr, who is now 82.
In Caveman, Starr plays a Neanderthal who is infatuated with Lana, portrayed by Bach, but ultimately chooses another mate, a storyline that humorously diverges from their real-life relationship.
The couple crossed paths at the Los Angeles airport while heading to the filming location of Caveman in Mexico.
In a 1981 Playboy feature (as reported by People), Bach shared, “There’s been a lot of nonsense written about us, but none of it is worth reading. The reality is, we didn’t become a couple until the very end of Caveman. While we worked together, we got along well, but we were both involved with other people and had our own friends. Then, suddenly, during the last week of filming, everything changed. Our friendship blossomed into love.”
In a 2021 interview with the Irish Examiner, the legendary Beatles member expressed his deep affection for his wife, whom he wed over forty years ago.
“I adore her. I fell in love with her the moment I first saw her at LAX in 1980. She was there with her boyfriend, and I was checking in for our flight to Mexico for the same film. That’s how it all began,” Star reminisced. “I feel incredibly fortunate to have her in my life, and that’s all I can say.”