After studies in Romance languages and English in Neuchâtel and Zurich, Besson left since 1946 in round to Germany with Jean-Marie Serreau, then was of 1949 to 1958 assistant and director in Berliner Ensemble de Bertolt Brecht.

He worked in Deutsches Theater of Berlin of 1961 to 1968, in Volksbühne of the same city as artistic director of 1969 to 1974 and as intendant of 1974 to 1978, to direct finally, between 1982 and 1989, the Comedy of Geneva, where he assembled in particular the green bird of Carlo Gozzi, Dom Juan of Molière and Hamlet de Shakespeare.

Besson made productions with Rostock, in Stuttgart, in Schauspielhaus of Zurich (for example Hamlet, Turandot, Homme for man and Sainte Jeanne of the slaughter-houses of Brecht, Jonas und Veteran center of Max Frisch), with the Large Theater from Geneva, in Munich, Berlin and Paris. It obtained the national price of GDR (1968), the Josef-Kainz medal (1982) and the Ring Hans-Reinhart (1985).