Rampling was born into an upper class family in Sturmer, Essex, the daughter of Anne Isabelle (née Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Rampling, an Olympic Gold Medal winning athlete and army officer. She attended Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles and St. Hilda's School, a boarding school in Bushey, Hertfordshire, England.

After beginning her acting career at age seventeen in a starring commercial role and working as a model for a while, Rampling's first screen role was uncredited as a water skier in Richard Lester's film The Knack...and How to Get It in 1965 which was followed a year later by the role of Meredith in the film Georgy Girl. After this her acting career blossomed in both English and French cinema.

Young Read more...

In 1972, Rampling married the actor Bryan Southcombe. They lived in a ménage à trois with a male model Randall Laurence and had one child, Barnaby, before divorcing in 1976. Barnaby is now a successful television director. In 1978, she married the French composer Jean Michel Jarre and had a son, the magician David Jarre. She also raised her stepdaughter, Émilie Jarre, now a fashion designer. Read more...