Severn Darden
| Severn Darden | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Severn Teakle Darden, Jr. November 9, 1929 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Died | May 27, 1995 (aged 65) Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor, comedian |
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.
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 Karpathia.
He also played a toy manufacturer in an episode of The Monkees and Dr. Herb Chisholm in a 1976 episode of the NBC situation comedy The Practice. He appeared in "Never Con a Killer," the pilot for the ABC crime drama The Feather and Father Gang, in 1977. He played the cold-hearted Kolp in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and a highly respected, but befuddled college dean, in the 1985 comedy Real Genius.
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