Alain Alivon was born in 1965 in Bouches du Rhône, among four siblings. He was entrusted to the welfare services.

After completing his primary and secondary education, he got admission into a faculty of law which he immediately abandoned to go back to his small law-breaking group of friends. He was arrested and told by a police officer that he had taken the wrong course in life which would obviously either land him in jail or lead him to a violent and disgraceful death, and advised him to quit.

Understanding that the life he was leading and the bad company he was keeping were plunging into wanton vice, he decided to do a U-turn. He was called up to join the naval fusilier corps in 1985, and started attending the Lorient naval fusilier academy. After having successfully passed his basic training tests, he volunteered to undergo the "naval commando" training. Out of about one thousand candidates, he came first, thereby earning the honour of receiving, besides the mythical green beret, the English dagger which symbolises Commando Kieffer’s bravery when it landed in Normandy in 1944, with its 177 men. Thanks to the difficult succession of ordeals, which he bravely endured, he emerged as a new man. 

Enlisted as a navy commando in 1987, transferred to the Montfort Commando, his overseas operations career, as well as the awards he received, has been unassuming: he served in Lebanon, Djibouti, in Former Yugoslavia, France, and Côte d'Ivoire. In 2005, at the end of his overseas campaigns, the one who became the emblematic "Marius" became the first commando master teacher and directing staff.

In 2011, as a married civilian and father of three, he played his own part in the film Special Forces, directed by Stéphane Rybojad. It is the extraordinary story of a courageous man of honour, who managed to transcend his condition to become Marius, an iconic soldier of the French Army. He also featured in the documentary L'Ecole des bérets verts. Since then, the security of Port of Marseille basins has been entrusted to him.