Born at Honfleur, Calvados, the young André Marie studied at primary and secondary level there, going on to the Lycée Corneille,[1] when his parents moved to Rouen in 1908.

Refusing Vichy politics on his return to Seine-Maritime, he resigned all his elected offices, and in a letter to his constituents, explained that he could not exercise his mandate while the people could not be consulted freely.

On his return to France, André Marie quickly regained his place in political life, both at departmental and national levels.

On 3 February 1949, as Minister of Justice, he was called to account in the National Assembly on the matter of the economic collaborator Pierre Brice.

An ardent proponent of public education, he brought about the law, still in place, which makes students of the écoles normales supérieures trainee civil servants: in exchange for a monthly salary, they may be asked to serve the government at any point during the ten years following their matriculation.