McDonald's used Speedee as its mascot before Ronald McDonald, beginning in 1948.
Speedee was a smiling chef character modeled on the fast-service idea behind the McDonald brothers' restaurant business. His name echoed the restaurant's emphasis on quickly preparing hamburgers, fries, and shakes. The character appeared in early McDonald's signs and advertising before the brand adopted its better-known clown mascot.
Speedee is often confused with later McDonaldland characters, especially the Hamburglar and Grimace. Those figures belonged to a much later advertising world, while Speedee represented the restaurant's original service concept. His chef design also reflected the mid-century restaurant imagery used by many American food businesses.
Ronald McDonald became the company's principal mascot in the 1960s, eventually making Speedee far less visible. Even so, Speedee remains an important link between McDonald's early postwar identity and its later character-based branding.