'Dexter' casting scoop: Charlotte Rampling lands key role

A veteran British actress has landed a key role in the upcoming eighth (and possibly final) season of Showtime’s Dexter.

Charlotte Rampling has been cast in a recurring role as a neuro-psychiatrist who specializes in working with young psychopaths and profiling criminals in unorthodox ways. We hear the role has a significant impact on next season’s story.

Rampling was in The Avengers (okay, the original 1967 TV version of The Avengers, but still…) and is best known to U.S. audiences from her roles in films such as Stardust Memories (1980), The Verdict (1982) and playing the mother of Keira Knightley’s title role character in The Duchess (2008).

As we previously reported, Dexter is returning early for its eighth season, debuting June 30 to serve as a lead-in for new Showtime series Ray Donovan, which stars Liev Schreiber as a professional “fixer” for the rich and famous.

UPDATE: Dexter has also cast Sean Patrick Flannery (The Young and the Restless). He’ll play Jacob Elroy, an ex-cop owner of a private investigation company in Miami.

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