Born and raised in Basel, Canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland as son of Berta née Stump and Emil,[1] Rasser's father died when Alfred was at the age of 11.

[3] Meanwhile, he premiered at the Stadttheater Basel, among others in Robert Cedric Sheriffs "Die andere Seite" and in Stravinsky's ballets "Petrushka" and "Pulcinella".

Rasser played on numerous Swiss theaters, including the role of the frog in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus in Lausanne and at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg in 1961, and in 1963 in Gogol's "The Government Inspector".

From 1935 to 1941 Rasser belonged with a short interruption to the ensemble of the Cabaret Cornichon in Zürich, where he stood out in particular through its parodies of Basel arrogance and independent line.

Besides, Rasser played with the Kabaret Kactus number cabaret and directed his Swiss German version of Mary Chase's Harvey starring himself in 1950.

He was politically active and was elected to the Nationalrat as a representative of the Landesring der Unabhängigen (LdU) between 1967 and 1975, where he stood for peace, social justice and culture.