Severn Darden

Severn Teakle Darden Jr. (November 9, 1929 – May 27, 1995) was an American comedian and actor, and an original member of The Second City Chicago-based comedy troupe as well as its predecessor, the Compass Players. He is perhaps best known from his film appearances for playing the human leader Kolp in the fourth and fifth Planet of the Apes films. 2Background Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he attended the University of Chicago. Darden’s offbeat and intellectual sense of humor, appropriate for someone who attended the University of Chicago and in fact a major element in the style of The Second City at that time, is evident throughout his work. One 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 appeared in various movies and television series. His best performance is probably in the comedy The President's Analyst; there he has a major role as Kropotkin, a Soviet agent with a laid-back persona (much like Darden's own). An early film, "LUV" (1967) (based on the play of the same title by Murray Schisgal), in which he played a junk dealer, also starred Jack Lemmon, Peter Falk, Elaine May, and Nina Wayne. One of his earliest TV roles was on Car 54 Where Are You? in the episode "Toody and the Art World" in which he played the artist Karpathi