The McDonald's advertising character first portrayed by Willard Scott in 1963 was Ronald McDonald.
Scott portrayed the character in early television advertising for a Washington, D.C.-area McDonald's franchise. Ronald's costume used recognizable restaurant imagery, including a paper-cup hat, helping connect the character to the brand's food and service environment.
McDonald's later developed Ronald into the central figure of a broader fictional world known as McDonaldland. Other characters, including the Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese, joined the advertising universe and helped the company appeal strongly to children and families.
Ronald McDonald is sometimes confused with the chain's earlier mascot, Speedee. Speedee represented the fast-service system in the late 1940s, while Ronald was a later television character introduced in the 1960s. Their roles belong to different stages of McDonald's branding history.