Anya Amasova played by Barbara Bach in 1977’s ‘The Spy who Loved Me’
In the widely acclaimed 1977 James Bond flick The Spy who Loved Me,
Barbara Bach plays the part of Anya Amasova, a KGB agent. In this movie,
Bond and Amasova have the same mission, and each attempts to outdo the
other. In the process, the two fall in love. Amasova later learns that
Bond killed her lover, so she tells Bond that once the mission is
complete, she will get revenge.
Later Amasova is held captive at an undersea base, but Bond rescues
her. When the mission is over, she aims her gun at Bond, but cannot
shoot him because she has fallen in love with him. The two leave the
undersea base in an escape pod, in which the two become amorous, to the
delight of Amasova’s superiors from Russia.
Though she had been appearing in foreign films since 1968, the role in
The Spy who Loved Me made Bach into an international sex symbol, and
also has the distinction of being the first Bond Girl role in which the
character is Bond’s equal, as the character Amasova is also a spy. She
later appeared in the movies Force 10 from Navarone, Up the Academy, and
Caveman, as well as the television mini-series Princess Daisy.
As for her personal life, Bach grew up in Queens, became a model at
age 16, then later married an Italian businessman named Augusto
Gregorini and had two children with him. She moved back to the U.S. in
1975.
In 1980 she met former Beatle Ringo Starr on the set of the movie
Caveman. The two were married in 1981 and have been together ever since.
In 1993, Bach earned a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University
of California, Los Angeles, and started an addiction recovery program
with help from Patti Boyd, George Harrison, and Eric Clapton.
