Wait, what? Rob Lowe as Col. Sanders in KFC ads? Believe it.

Dayton’s own Rob Lowe is the new Col. Sanders in a just-unveiled TV advertising campaign for KFC.

The actor has played many roles through the years — as Sam Seaborn in “The West Wing” and Chris Traeger in “Parks and Recreation,” for example — but the former Brat Pack member who also starred in “St. Elmo’s Fire” is branching out into fast food.

Lowe portrays Colonel Harland Sanders in an ad push that began Sunday, donning the colonel’s white suit, black string tie and trademark goatee — and a space suit.

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Lowe, 53, will be promoting KFC’s Zinger chicken sandwich, the restaurant chain announced Friday.

"My grandfather was the head of the Ohio chapter of the National Restaurant Association in the 1960s and took me to meet Colonel Harland Sanders when I was a kid," Lowe told USA Today. "It was a big deal. I thought this would be a nice homage to both Colonel Sanders and to my grandfather."

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Lowe spent most his childhood in the Dayton area. He is the son of local attorney Chuck Lowe. Rob was born during Chuck Lowe’s last year of law school at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va.

The family moved to Dayton when Rob was 3 months old, raising him in the city and surrounding areas. Rob Lowe attended Longfellow School in Dayton as well as Oakwood Junior High School before moving to Malibu, Calif., with his mother and younger brother, actor and director Chad Lowe.

Rob’s mother, Ohio native Barbara Lynn Hepler, died in California in 2003.

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Among the other seven celebrities who have portrayed the founder of the Finger Lickin’ Good chicken are Darrell Hammond, Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan and actors George Hamilton and Billy Zane.

The spicy Zinger sandwich debuts today, April 24, in the United States after a 33-year stint overseas, KFC said. In a video promoting the sandwich, Lowe steps to the podium in his space suit and proclaims that “The time has come to explore beyond our known horizons.”

Lowe ends the video by asking, “Can you actually launch KFC’s world-famous Zinger chicken sandwich into space?”

His answer? “We certainly hope so. Our entire marketing campaign depends on it.

“But when we succeed, we will lick our fingers. We will lick our fingers good.”

• Bob D’Angelo of the Cox Media Group National Content Desk contributed to this report.

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