Colonel Sanders

Born Harland David Sanders in Henryville, Indiana. His father dies when he is five. His mother works in a canning factory. Harland cooks for his younger siblings starting at age six.

Has already been a farmhand, streetcar conductor, railroad fireman, insurance salesman, tire salesman, ferryboat operator, and failed lawyer (he got into a courtroom fistfight with his own client). At 40, he starts cooking chicken at a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky.

Develops his "secret recipe" of 11 herbs and spices and a pressure-frying method that cooks the chicken in minutes instead of half an hour. The recipe is written on a single sheet of paper and locked in a vault. It stays there.

Opens his first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in South Salt Lake, Utah. He's 62. He drives around the country cooking chicken for restaurant owners, signing them up on handshake deals. If they like the taste, they pay him four cents per chicken sold.

Sells KFC for $2 million at age 73 to a group led by John Y. Brown Jr. (later governor of Kentucky). He keeps the Canadian franchise and a salaried job as brand ambassador. He begins wearing the white suit full-time.

Dies of leukemia in Louisville at 90. By now KFC has 6,000 outlets in 48 countries. He'd spent his last years publicly trashing the company's food, calling the gravy "wallpaper paste."