Born Micheline Nicole Julia Emilienne Chassagne, she wanted to be an actress from an early age. She took acting classes in her early teens and made her film debut at the age of fifteen in the 1937 production of "La Fessée." In 1938 she was awarded the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as the most promising young actress in French cinema. Her rise to European stardom led to offers from Hollywood and in 1950 she was signed by 20th Century Fox. Using the easier to pronounce last name of "Prelle," her first Hollywood production was a starring role opposite John Garfield in the film Under My Skin directed by Jean Negulesco. That same year director Fritz Lang cast her opposite Tyrone Power in the war drama American Guerrilla in the Philippines. In 1950 she became the second wife of American actor William Marshall with whom she had a daughter, Tonie. William Marshall had teamed up with actor Errol Flynn and his production company and in 1951 he directed her and Flynn in the film Adventures of Captain Fabian.

Micheline Presle's marriage did not last and she returned to France, divorcing Marshall in 1954. Her career flourished in French films and in 1957 she was a guest on the American Ed Sullivan Show. In 1959 she performed in the United Kingdom English-language production of Blind Date directed by Joseph Losey. She returned to Hollywood in 1962 for the role of Sandra Dee's mother in the Universal Studios film If a Man Answers which also featured Dee's husband, singer Bobby Darin. The following year Presle acted again in English in The Prize starring Paul Newman. She did not make another English film but after performing in for than fifty films in French, in 1989 she appeared in the French-made bilingual production I Want to Go Home for which she was nominated for the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

Micheline Presle continues to act both in film and on television, and over her long career she has made more than one hundred and fifty films.