Joe Maggard

Joseph "Joe" Maggard (born December 8, 1955) is an American actor, singer and former deputy sheriff who has appeared in various different films and television shows. Maggard is infamously known for claiming to have played Ronald McDonald in McDonald's commercials and voicing Ronald in The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald from 1995 to 2007. This has been refuted by observing facial features of Ronald McDonald from the show, where the character was actually played by Jack Doepke and David Hussey. A 2003 Baltimore Sun article also revealed that Maggard portrayed Ronald McDonald as a stand-in for one commercial shoot, and never portrayed the character in any official capacity ever again.

Early career
Maggard originally began his career as a soldier for the Vietnam War in which he served from 1974 to 1976. After returning from the army, he later became a deputy sheriff for the Brunswick County North Carolina Sheriff's Department. He served three years as a sheriff before getting into acting in 1989.

Ronald McDonald character scam
Maggard claimed in a 2014 interview with The Guardian that he portrayed Ronald McDonald from 1995 to 2007. However, McDonald's revealed to The Baltimore Sun in 2003 that Maggard was simply a stand-in actor for one commercial shoot in the mid-90's, and that "he is definitely not Ronald McDonald." In 1998, Maggard pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying a concealed weapon in New Hanover County, N.C., and the next year was convicted in county court of making harassing telephone calls posing as Ronald. The judge ordered him to take anger-management classes.