Well the original colonel sanders was a real person (Much like Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's), who lived from 1890 to 1980. I don't know much about him except he was sort of a patron of B movie films (He would provide catering for the cast and crew of such films, in exchange for some product placement and a walk on cameo. The best known example of this is in the Nazi biker/Spy movie Hells Bloody Devils, which was reviewed by the Cinema Snob).