Charles Tillon was born in France in 1897. He joined the French Navy and in 1919 he took part in the mutiny that attempted to stop France intervening against the Bolshevik Revolution.

Tillon joined the Communist Party and became a trade union activist in the chemical industry. In 1936 he was elected to parliament as a representative of the working-class area of Aubervilliers.

In the summer of 1940 Tillon joined the French Resistance and the following year became one of the leaders of the Frances-Tireurs Partisans (FTP). Tillon organized the FTP along military lines with local, regional and national command structures.

After the D-day landings took place Tillon attempted to organize a communist revolution. However, under instructions from Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, Maurice Thorez and other leaders refused to cooperate.

In 1952 Tillon and André Marty were both expelled from the Communist Party. Charles Tillon died in 1993.