KFC Founder Colonel Sanders Didn't Achieve His Remarkable Rise to Success Until His 60s

By Richard Feloni

KFC's current ad campaign stars a cartoonish Colonel Sanders played by "Saturday Night Live" alumnus Darrell Hammond, but the fast-food icon was a real person who followed an unlikely path to creating a multibillion-dollar international company.

The real Col. Sanders was an entrepreneur who didn't become a professional chef until he was 40, didn't franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken until he was 62, and didn't become an icon until after he sold his company at 75.

According to a 1970 New Yorker profile by William Whitworth, as well as biographies from Bio and the University of Houston, here are the highlights of the Colonel's remarkable rise to success.