KFC's New Colonel Sanders Is Familiar Face

Actor will be featured in chicken chain's newest round of ads
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 21, 2017 1:02 PM CDT

Part of the fun of watching KFC commercials is figuring out who's underneath all of the makeup in the Harland Sanders costume. Now there's a new colonel in town, the chain announced Friday: Rob Lowe. The 53-year-old Parks and Rec actor will be donning Colonel Sanders' trademark white wig and browline glasses to promote its Zinger chicken sandwich—not "West Wings," as USA Today notes—except he'll also be wearing a spacesuit.

Lowe has a soft spot for the colonel. When he was a kid, his grandfather chaired the Ohio arm of the National Restaurant Association and took Lowe to meet the real Harland Sanders. "It was a big deal," Lowe says, adding his turn as Sanders would be a "nice homage" to both men. CNN notes some of Lowe's other quirky roles, including an eccentric plastic surgeon in the Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra, to justify the handsome actor portraying an elderly fast-food icon. KFC's title role has been played of late by George Hamilton, Norm Macdonald, and Darrell Hammond, among others. (Who took the most heat at Rob Lowe's roast last summer.)

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