Faces of The Woman: Charlotte Rampling

“… I have been trained as an actress myself.”

– A Study in Scarlet (STUD)

Charlotte Rampling got her start in acting during the 1960’s, being an extra in the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night. With a few other acting roles, she landed the role of Meredith in Georgy Girl. She would expand her repertoire with French and Italian art house films, plus several films for the United States market. In 1976, she would portray Irene Adler, aka The Woman, in Sherlock Holmes in New York. Holmes would help Adler retrieve her son, Scott, who was kidnapped by henchmen of Professor Moriarty.  In addition, Holmes would help foil a bank robbery engineered by Moriarty to start an international incident.

In the mid-1970’s, Rampling relocated to live in France.  She would be honored by France in 1986 as a Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters). This Order was created by the French Minister of Culture in 1957 to recognize eminent artists and writers, as well as people who have contributed significantly to furthering the arts in France and throughout the world. The Order is awarded three times every year with up to 200 recipients annually.

The medal of the Order for Knights is an eight-point, green-enameled asterisk, in silver; the obverse central disc has the monogram letters of “A” and “L” on a white enamelled background, surrounded by a golden ring emblazoned with the phrase “République Française”.

The reverse central disc features the head of Marianne on a golden background, surrounded by a golden ring bearing the words “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”.

The ribbon of the Order is green with four white stripes.

In 2000, the British-born Rampling was honored by her home country as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire or OBE. Rampling received this distinction “for services to acting and U.K.-French cultural relations.”

The badge for the OBE is in the form of a cross patonce (having the arms growing broader and floriated toward the end), the obverse of which bears the left facing busts of King George V and Queen Mary; the reverse bears George V’s Royal and Imperial Cypher. Both are within a ring bearing the motto of the Order. The badges are plain gold (unlike the enamelled CBE badge), and is suspended from a ribbon that is rose-pink with pearl-grey edges, with the addition of a pearl-grey central stripe for the military division.

Rampling would be honored again in 2002 as an Officier of the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honour).

The badge of the Légion is a five-armed “Maltese Asterisk” in gilt enamelled white, with an enamelled laurel and oak wreath between the arms. The obverse central disc is in gilt, featuring the head of Marianne, surrounded by the legend République Française on a blue enamel ring. The reverse central disc is also in gilt, with a set of crossed tricolores, surrounded by the Légion’s motto Honneur et Patrie (Honour and Fatherland) and its foundation date on a blue enamel ring. The badge is suspended by an enamelled laurel and oak wreath.

For the officer degree, the red ribbon would have a rosette.

Below, we have a picture of Charlotte Rampling wearing her Officer of the Legion of Honour badge at an event in 2012.