He grew up on the island of Corsica, to where his bank manager father had been transferred when Meurisse was a small child.

In 1936, Meurisse moved to Paris, where he found work in musical theatres and nightclubs, and appeared with performers such as Marie Dubas.

The quality of the films was varied, but Meurisse's versatility brought him recognition, with his performance often considered the best part of an otherwise mediocre effort.

[3] Other of his notable films include Julien Duvivier's inquisitorial and oppressive Marie-Octobre (1959), Jean Renoir's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (1959), Clouzot's courtroom drama La Vérité (1960) and Melville's crime thriller Le deuxième souffle (1966).

The 1969 film L'Armée des ombres, in which Meurisse had a leading role, was released in 2006 on DVD, under the title Army of Shadows, in the UK and US, to critical acclaim.

Meurisse appeared in many stage productions, in plays by both contemporary French authors such as Marcel Achard and Jean Anouilh to classical English playwrights Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw.