He appeared in several films (including several in the Carry On series) but was more frequently on television, a regular role being Robert Onedin in the BBC TV serial The Onedin Line.

He also played character roles in many other TV programmes such as Coronation Street, The Baron, Z-Cars, Market in Honey Lane, The Bill, Heartbeat, Danger Man, Goodnight Sweetheart and Last of the Summer Wine, in which he played Cyril Gridley, which was his final appearance.

As a writer, Rawlinson wrote several plays, but was most involved in the mid-1970s BBC serial Churchill's People, an adaptation based on Winston Churchill's book A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.

He was later interviewed about his association with the series on TV Hell, a theme night that BBC Two ran in 1992 on bad television programmes.

He died in Lyme Regis, Dorset on 23 November 2000 aged 69.