Ronald McDonald, the iconic clown character associated with McDonald's, originated in 1963 from three local television advertisements created by the advertising agency of Oscar Goldstein, a McDonald's franchise owner in Washington, D.C. The character was first portrayed by Willard Scott, who had been a TV clown known as Bozo the Clown in Washington. Scott created Ronald McDonald as a clown character to replace Bozo in local ads promoting McDonald's hamburgers, and the campaign was later taken national in 1965 with different actors playing the role.