Willard Scott created and first portrayed the original Ronald McDonald character for McDonald's early television commercials.
Scott was a television personality in the Washington, D.C., area when he developed the clown character for local McDonald's advertising. The first version was based partly on familiar clown imagery and used distinctive food-related costume elements.
The character appeared in a 1963 commercial and was later refined as Ronald became a national advertising figure. Scott's original appearance was different from the standardized Ronald McDonald look that many later audiences recognized.
Ronald's history is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Ray Kroc, the businessman who expanded McDonald's franchising, or to Walt Disney because of the character's family-oriented appeal. Those figures were not the creator of the original Ronald television character.