She made her professional debut with the distinguished Comedie-Francaise theater troupe in 1954 after she graduated with honors from the conservatoire de Paris. She remained with the troupe through 1957, occasionally taking time off to perform on radio, television and in Parisian nightclubs. She made an inauspicious film debut in Trieze a Table in 1955. In early roles, Girardot was typically cast as doomed women of dubious origins in dark films, but she didn't make much impact until she played in Luchino Visconti's "Rocco and his Brothers" (1960). During filming she became romantically linked with co-star Renato Salvatori -the character who stabbed her character thirteen times. They married, but divorced many years later. Through the early '60s, Girardot played leads in a few Italian pictures directed by either Visconti or Marco Ferreri. In the `70s she played also the part of the mother of young stars like Claude Jade ("Les feux de la Chandeleur") or Isabelle Adjani ("La gifle"). Though she appeared in myddramas during the '60s and '70s, Girardot never forgot her Comedie Francaise experiences and proved herself an adept comedienne in such films as "La Vielle Fille" or "Tendre Poulet".