Cinema Scholars presents this sixth installment of our Bond Girls series (Click Here for Part 1). This time we take a look at three ladies from the Roger Moore era of the James Bond franchise: Tanya Roberts, Lois Chiles, and Barbara Bach.
Barbara Bach
Barbara Goldbach was born in the Rosedale neighborhood in Queens, New York on August 28, 1946. Her father was Howard, a New York City cop of Jewish decent, and Marjorie, a housewife of Irish ancestry. She was the second child of four born to the couple.
In 1964, Barbara graduated from Dominican Commercial High School, an all-girls Catholic school in Queens. She then began to pursue a modeling career with a truncated version of her last name, Bach. It wasn’t long before Bach signed with the Eileen Ford modeling agency.
Bach had a meteoric rise in the modeling world and was soon one of the most sought-after beauties working in the industry. She also began jet-setting around the globe and living a life of glamour and luxury. This was far away from her working-class New York City roots.
In 1966, Bach was appearing on the covers of magazines such as Seventeen, Vogue, and ELLE France. She also began a relationship with Italian businessman Augusto, Count Gregorini di Savignano di Romagna. The couple was married soon after and had two children before divorcing in 1975.
In the late 1960s and early 70s, Bach began to appear in Italian movies. Her first role was in a made for tv mini-series L’Odissea (1968), based on Homer’s The Odyssey. Another notable role during this time was in Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971) co-starring fellow Bond girl Claudine Auger.
Bach’s breakout role would come in 1977 when she was cast opposite Roger Moore in the 007 film The Spy Who Loved Me. The following year she appeared in Force 10 From Navarone (1978) with Robert Shaw and Harrison Ford.
In 1979, when Kate Jack departed from the hit television show Charlie’s Angels, she was considered her replacement. However, she didn’t get the role because the producers wanted an American for the role, unaware that she was born in bred in New York City.
In 1980, Bach met Beatles drummer Ringo Starr while shooting the movie Caevman (1981). The pair quickly became an item and were married in 1981. Still married over 40 years later the couple is involved in many charitable works, including the Self Help Addiction Recovery Program (SHARP) and The Lotus Foundation, which is aimed at advancing social welfare in diverse areas.
Lois Chiles
Lois Chiles was born in Houston, Texas on April 15, 1947, to a wealthy family who earned its fortune in the oil business. While attending Finch College in New York City she was discovered by a Glamour editor looking for a fresh face. Soon under contract with Wilhelmina Models in New York and Elite Models in Paris.
Chiles’ first movie role was in the blaxploitation film Black Cream (1972). She then went on to appear in The Great Gatsby (1974), Death on the Nile (1978), and the James Bond space adventure, Moonraker (1979).
Soon after shooting wrapped on Moonraker Chiles stepped away from acting when her brother died from cancer. This choice impacted her career with offers for new roles greatly diminished. Some of her more notable roles in the 1980s and beyond include Sweet Liberty (1986), Broadcast News (1987), and a stint on the television series Dallas.
Tanya Roberts
Victoria Leigh Blum was born in New York City on October 15, 1955. Blum’s grandfather, Theodor Blum, had been one of the first dentists to use X-rays and local anesthesia in the field of dentistry.
While pursuing an acting career in New York in 1974, she met Barry Roberts while in line for a movie. They married soon after and remained together until his death in 2006. Throughout the late 1970s, Roberts appeared in commercials for Excedrin and Clairol, and movies including Fingers (1978) and Tourist Trap (1979).
“What I really want is a commercial hit. If you’re in a hit, you’re suddenly a star, whether you acted well or not.”
– Tanya Roberts
In the Summer of 1980, Roberts was cast as Julie Rogers, the latest Angel, beating out over 2,000 other hopefuls for the role. Ratings plummeted and the show was canceled with Nielsen ratings falling from 12 to 59. Roberts appeared in Beastmaster (1982) as well as Sheena (1985) and A View To a Kill (1985).
She passed away on January 21, 2021.
