From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Antonin Artaud (September 4, 1896, in Marseille – March 4, 1948 in Paris) was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director. Antonin is a diminutive form of Antoine "little Anthony", and was among a list of names which Artaud used throughout his writing career. Description above from the Wikipedia article Antonin Artaud licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.