After 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. She often takes roles which portray her as the villain or as a 'bitch'.

In 1972, she married the actor Bryan Southcombe, they 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 one child, the magician David Jarre. The marriage was dissolved in the late 1990s when she found out (via tabloid newspaper stories) about Jarre's affairs with other women. In 2005, she is due to marry her business consultant fiancé Jean-Noel Tassez.