Rampling was born in 1946 inSturmer, Essex, the daughter of Isabel Anne (née Gurteen; 1918–2001), a painter, andGodfrey Rampling (1909–2009), anOlympic gold medallist runner and British Army officer.[8][9][10] She spent most of her early life inGibraltar, France and Spain, before she returned to the UK in 1964.[11]
She attended Académie Jeanne d'Arc inVersailles andSt Hilda's School, aboarding school inBushey, Hertfordshire, England. She had one sister, Sarah, who died by suicide in 1967, aged 23. She and Sarah had a close relationship and they had performed in acabaret act together during their young years.[12][13][14]
On television, Rampling played thegunfighter Hana Wilde in "The Superlative Seven", a 1967 episode ofThe Avengers in which she knocked out John Steed.[18] In 1969, she starred oppositeSam Waterston in the romance-dramaThree, and in 1972, she starred oppositeRobert Blake in the dramaCorky and portrayedAnne Boleyn in the costume dramaHenry VIII and His Six Wives. After this, her career flourished and she found notable work in both English and French cinema.
Despite an early flurry of success, she toldThe Independent: "We weren't happy. It was a nightmare, breaking the rules and all that. Everyone seemed to be having fun, but they were taking so many drugs they wouldn't know it anyway."[19]
Rampling has performed controversial roles. In 1969, inLuchino Visconti'sThe Damned (La Caduta degli dei), she played a young wife sent to aNazi concentration camp. Critics praised her performance, and it cast her in a whole new image: mysterious, sensitive, and ultimately tragic. "The Look", as her co-starDirk Bogarde called it, became her trademark.[20]
1970–early 1980s: mature roles, Hollywood, and Italian cinema
She appeared in the cult classicVanishing Point, in a scene deleted from the U.S. theatrical release (included in the U.K. release). Lead actorBarry Newman remarked that the scene was of aid in the allegorical lilt of the film.
Rampling in 1968
In 1974'sThe Night Porter, in which she again appears alongside Dirk Bogarde, she plays a formerconcentration camp inmate who, after World War II, reunites with a former camp guard (Bogarde) with whom she had had an ambiguous,sadomasochistic relationship. Their relationship resumes, and she becomes his mistress and victim once again. In 1974, she posed nude forPlayboy photographs byHelmut Newton.[21] In 1976 she co-presented for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration Award withAnthony Hopkins at the48th Academy Awards.[22]
Rampling creditsFrançois 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 having given birth prematurely in 1966, had died by suicide at 23. She toldThe Guardian: "I thought that after such a long time of not letting her be with me. I would like to bring her back into my life."[20] The character she played in Ozon'sSwimming Pool (2003), Sarah Morton, was named in her sister's honour.
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. They kept their secret until Rampling's mother died in 2001.[20]
On her choice of roles, Rampling said "I generally don't make films to entertain people. I choose the parts that challenge me to break through my own barriers. A need to devour, punish, humiliate or surrender seems to be a primal part of human nature, and it's certainly a big part of sex. To discover what normal means, you have to surf a tide of weirdness."[23]
In 2010, she completed filmingCleanskin, a terrorist thriller, and played Miss Emily in the dystopian romantic fantasyNever Let Me Go.[25][26] She also appeared as Helena in the dance dramaStreetDance 3D and the nun Mary inThe Mill and the Cross withMichael York andRutger 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). In 2011 she also appeared inLars Von Trier'sMelancholia. For her role in the 2012 miniseriesRestless, Rampling was nominated for aPrimetime Emmy Award and aScreen Actors Guild Award. In 2013, she appeared as Dr. Evelyn Vogel in the eighth season ofDexter.[27] Rampling also appeared as Alice in the dramaJeune et Jolie and the elderly Adriana do Prado inNight Train to Lisbon. Other television roles include the ITV dramaBroadchurch (2015)[28] and the BBC dramaLondon Spy (2015). In 2014, she was named the new face ofNARS Cosmetics to launch their new lipstick campaign.[29]
In 2016, Rampling said that efforts to boycott that year's Oscars ceremony over alack of racial diversity among nominees were "racist to whites".[36] Her comments were called "offensive, outrageous and ignorant" byChelsea Clinton, although they were defended byClint Eastwood. Rampling later apologised for her comments and expressed regret that her statements were misinterpreted.[37][38]
In 1972, Rampling married New Zealand actor and publicist Bryan Southcombe[49] and had a son, Barnaby Southcombe (who became a television director),[50] before divorcing in 1976.[51] The couple was reported to have been living in aménage à trois with Randall Laurence, a male model,[19] and in 1974, Rampling was quoted by the syndicated columnistEarl 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. We were just like any people sharing an apartment."[52] In 2021, Rampling acknowledged the relationship in an interview withThe Guardian, saying:
Well, I did have two boyfriends, which was racy at the time...We were all very young. It was all chop and change. Quite a lot of things were experimental, I suppose. How to live a life! I don't know whether I've got itnow, but never mind – I had it![53]
In 1978, Rampling married French composerJean-Michel Jarre and had a second son, David Jarre, who became a musician and singer[54] and then a magician. She also raised her stepdaughter, Émilie Jarre, who became a fashion designer. The marriage was publicly dissolved in 1997, when Rampling learned from tabloid stories about Jarre's affairs with other women.[55] Their divorce was finalised in 2002. Rampling later remarked:
It is not uncommon for a man to have an affair, or even for a woman to have an affair. But the way I found out! In the tabloids. It was demeaning. And then for it to have continued. No, I could not forgive that at the time.[55]
Rampling was engaged toJean-Noël Tassez, a French journalist and businessman, from 1998 until his death in 2015.[56] Rampling has lived in Paris since the late 1970s.[19][57][58]
^abc"Good Charlotte".The Age. Melbourne, Australia: Nine Entertainment Co. 4 October 2003.Archived from the original on 2 June 2008. Retrieved11 August 2007.
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