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.

[1] His live comedy improv skit under the character of "Walther von der Vogelweide" was influential with two generations of comic performers.

[2] 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.

[2] 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.

A signature performance is in the 1967 comedy The President's Analyst; there he plays a major role as Kropotkin, a Soviet agent with a laid-back persona, much like Darden's own.

[1] Darden assumes the character of a German-accented speaker, Prof. Walther von der Vogelweide (borrowing the name of the famous medieval poet).

The professor plays the role of Oedipus and refuses to perform the acts that would lead to his fate, but finds that despite his apparent agency the other characters respond in ways that produce the same results.

The professor ends the sketch by saying, "So you see, my dear students, the lesson that we learn from this is that Man has free will, but tragic poets do not, and Art is not Nature."