Severn Darden
Acting
Born 1929-11-09
Died 1995-05-27
90 credits
Read biography
Severn Teakle Darden Jr. (November 9, 1929 – May 27, 1995) was an American comedian and actor, and a founding member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its predecessor, the Compass Players. He is known from his film appearances for playing the human leader Kolp in the fourth and fifth Planet of the Apes films. His live comedy improv skit under the character of "Walther von der Vogelweide" was influential with two generations of comic performers.
Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was a "campus legend" according to poet Paul Carroll. Darden’s offbeat and intellectual sense of humor was a major element in the style of The Second City at that time, and is evident throughout his work. Carroll described him as a combination of surrealistic New Orleans and tough, caustic "Chicago Style" comedy. An example of his offbeat humor is the way he squeezed the phrase "Know thyself" into the seven-character limitation of a New Mexico license plate: NOYOSEF.
Darden was a core comedian in Paul Sills' Compass Players, the first improvisation theater in the US; it performed around the Chicago area during the mid-1950s. Sills went on to found The Second City in 1959 and brought in many of the comedians from Compass Players, including Darden.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 90
Cheers
I Dream of Jeannie
Starsky & Hutch
Barney Miller
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Fall Guy
Daniel Boone
Baretta
The Bionic Woman
The Name of the Game
Laverne & Shirley
Faerie Tale Theatre
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
The Monkees
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Alias Smith and Jones
Harry O
Honey West
Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Real Genius
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Barbary Coast
Back to School
Flying High
Occasional Wife
Vanishing Point
They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
City of Angels
Pussycat, Pussycat, I Love You
The Practice
Beyond Westworld
Hopscotch
I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now?
Getting Together
Luv
Lincoln
Hallmark Hall of Fame
The Last Movie
The Movie Murderer
Barefoot in the Park
The Man and the City
The Day of the Dolphin
Jackson County Jail
Take Five
Model Shop
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
Wanda Nevada
Cisco Pike
Love for Rent
The President's Analyst
Victory at Entebbe
Justine
Mother, Jugs & Speed
Dirty Little Billy
P.J.
The Telephone
Saturday the 14th
In God We Tru$t
The Mad Room
The War Between Men and Women
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