Celebrated less for her stage work than for her continuing role in a popular British TV serial, A For Andromeda, Christie made her film debut in a small role in Crooks Anonymous (1963). After a rather charming ingenue stint in The Fast Lady (1963) (the lady was a car, not the ingenue), she received her first prestige part in Billy Liar (1963), gaining critical acclaim for this and her subsequent supporting part in Young Cassidy (1965). Thus, Christie was not the "newcomer" that some perceived her to be when she shook film audiences to their foundations in Darling (1965), a poignant time capsule about a stylishly amoral sexual butterfly. Christie won numerous awards for Darling, not the least of which were the British Film Academy award and the American Oscar.

Her star further ascended into box-office heaven when she was cast in the big-budget Doctor Zhivago (1965), in which she gave a radiant performance as the tragic Lara. She followed this with a dual role in Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1967) and a starring turn in John Schlesinger's acclaimed 1967 adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd. Roles of wildly varying quality followed, until in 1971 Christie began a professional and romantic liaison with Warren Beatty.

The romance was over within a few years, but Beatty and Christie ultimately worked together on three major films of the 1970s: McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Shampoo (1975), and Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Christie's films of the 1970s and 1980s including The Go-Between (1971), the classic Don't Look Now (1974) and her cameo in Nashville (1975) were juxtaposed with her campaigning for various social and political causes. Christie's performance in the British TV movie The Railway Station Man (1992), was a choice example of her devotion to social issues -- in this case, the ongoing ideological (and shooting) war in Ireland. Far more than any other actor of her stature she used her position to bring even the most unfashionable causes to the public eye. Few of her critics could understand her sincerity and brushed her aside or pigeon holed her as an 'enigma' which said far more for the cynics writing these pieces than their subject.

But the lazy journalism stuck and the 'enigma' tag stuck to such an extent that it was a surprise to many audiences when she turned up as Gertrude in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Hamlet (1996). She won acclaim for the role, embellished the following year with her portrayal of Nick Nolte's estranged wife in Afterglow.

Nominated for her third Best Actress Oscar for her performance, Christie convinced many that, although she had chosen to neglect the limelight for awhile, she hadn't chosen to neglect her talent.

In 1999, Christie made The Miracle Maker.

In the late 90s Christie relocated to the west coast of US and continues in films with her appearance in No Such Thing (2002).