The primary icon of McDonald's. He is a clown with red hair and a big red smile who wears on a yellow suit and red shoes. He also wears a red and white striped shirt underneath with yellow gloves in 1963. Originally, he looked nothing compared to who he is today, wearing a yellow and red striped suit with a tray of a McDonald's Hamburger, french fries, and milkshakes. He also used it as a hat too. From 1971 to 2009 (Spring 2009 in the last McDonaldland commercials), Ronald's suit had french fry bags for pockets with two large ones around the lower body and an average sized french fry bag on the heart. The sleeve and leg stripes were thin, and the neck collar was long. Starting with Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald, in 1998, Ronald wore a different looking suit replacing the french fry bag pockets, with standard red ones and the one on the heart being a red circle with the "M" in the center. The neck collar also slightly shrunk in a smaller appearance and the stripes are thicker. This would become their permanent look starting in 2009. Ronald, Grimace, Birdie and Fry Kids now interact with a birthday child in claymation, as he used to in the McDonaldland era. He was first portrayed by Willard Scott (who also played Bozo the Clown) and various other actors over the years. Although he seldom appears after 2016 due to clown scares in recent years.