She soon began making French and Italian arthouse films, notably Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969) and Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974).

She went on to star in many European and English-language films, including Stardust Memories (1980), The Verdict (1982), Long Live Life (1984), and The Wings of the Dove (1997).

In the 2000s, she became the muse of French director François Ozon, appearing in several of his films, notably Swimming Pool (2003) and Young & Beautiful (2013).

[12][13][14] Rampling made her stage debut at the age of 14, singing French chansons with her sister at Bernays Institute in Stanmore.

She also appeared alongside Franco Nero in the Italian film Sardinia Kidnapped (Sequestro di persona) (1968), directed by Gianfranco Mingozzi.

[17] On television, Rampling played the gunfighter Hana Wilde in "The Superlative Seven", a 1967 episode of The Avengers in which she knocked out John Steed.

In 1969, in Luchino Visconti's The Damned (La Caduta degli dei), she played a young wife sent to a Nazi concentration camp.

She gained recognition from American audiences as the leading lady in a well-received remake of Raymond Chandler's detective story Farewell, My Lovely (1975) starring Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe, and later with Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and in The Verdict (1982), an acclaimed drama directed by Sidney Lumet that starred Paul Newman.

Rampling credits François Ozon with drawing her back to film in the 2000s, a period when she came to terms with the death of her elder sister Sarah who, after giving birth prematurely in 1966, died by suicide at 23.

For most of Rampling's life, she said that her sister had died of a brain haemorrhage; when she and her father learned of Sarah’s death, they agreed they never would let her mother know the truth.

[20] Rampling appeared in Tony Scott's Spy Game (2001), and she earned César Award nominations for Under the Sand (2000), Swimming Pool (2003), and Lemming (2005).

[citation needed] Hideo Kojima used Rampling's likeness for The Boss, the main antagonist of his game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, released in 2004.

In 2008, she portrayed Countess Spencer, the mother of Keira Knightley's title character, in The Duchess and played the High Priestess in post-apocalyptic thriller Babylon A.D.

In 2010, she completed filming Cleanskin, a terrorist thriller, and played Miss Emily in the dystopian romantic fantasy Never Let Me Go.

[25][26] She also appeared as Helena in the dance drama StreetDance 3D and the nun Mary in The Mill and the Cross with Michael York and Rutger Hauer.

2011 saw Rampling play Elizabeth Hunter in the Fred Schepisi directed adaptation of Australian Nobel laureate Patrick White's novel, The Eye of the Storm (with Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush).

[27] Rampling also appeared as Alice in the drama Jeune et Jolie and the elderly Adriana do Prado in Night Train to Lisbon.

[30][31] The film is about a couple preparing to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary when new information regarding the husband's missing previous lover arises.

[citation needed] In 2016, Rampling said that efforts to boycott that year's Oscars ceremony over a lack of racial diversity among nominees were "racist to whites".

[39] In 2017, Rampling co-starred as Veronica Ford with Jim Broadbent and Emily Mortimer in The Sense of an Ending, based on the novel by Julian Barnes.

[42] Her next film was in Andrea Pallaoro's Hannah, where she portrayed the title role of the wife of a man imprisoned on uncertain charges.

[45] Rampling was originally cast as Lady Jessica in Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed adaptation of Dune in the 1970s, but left the project in disgust after reading a scene in the script where 2,000 extras defecated at once.

[46] Rampling plays a grouchy grandmother in New Zealand writer-director Matthew J. Saville's 2021 black comedy Juniper.

[51] The couple was reported to have been living in a ménage à trois with Randall Laurence, a male model,[19] and in 1974, Rampling was quoted by the syndicated columnist Earl Wilson as saying: "There are so many misunderstandings in life.

I once caused a scandal by saying I lived with two men...I didn't mean it in a sexual sense...I was just too dirty to clean my act up.