Charlotte Rampling Biography

Actress Charlotte Rampling has hired lawyers to try to block the publication of a biography about her written by a close friend.

The star, who became known for her sexually explicit roles after finding fame in the 1966 film Georgy Girl, had originally agreed to co-author the memoir.

The book was due to detail Ms Rampling’s struggle with clinical depression following the suicide of her sister, of which she has previously spoken, and her much-chronicled private life which came close to matching the notoriety of her films.

The daughter of an Army officer from Essex, Ms Rampling scandalised society in the Seventies by living with two men – her agent Bryan Southcombe and a model, Randall Laurence, although she always denied there was ever any sexual relationship.

The book was also due to touch on the star’s marriage to French composer Jean-Michel Jarre, and its collapse amid reports of affairs with a younger woman.

But after providing hundreds of hours of interviews and access to private papers and letters, Ms Rampling told her friend, the author Barbara Victor, that she was withdrawing her co-operation and pulling out of the five-figure contract.