Joe Maggard

Joe Maggard was born in the small Applachian coal-town of Lynch, Kentucky. At the age of 5 he moved with his family to southeastern North Carolina. When he was 16 years old he dove into a local lake and broke his neck. Maggard spent almost a year in the hospital with 2 metal spikes drilled into his skull and laying on a foster-frame. He was paralyzed for a period of time but regained the use of his legs and eventually served from 1974-76 in the US Army overseas during the last days of the Vietnam War. After that Maggard became a Deputy Sheriff with the Brunswick County North Carolina Sheriff's Dept. During work as a cop, Maggard took to the stage as an actor at historic Thalian Hall in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has appeared in more than 20 legitimate theater productions such as Mr. Roberts, Oklahoma, and his critically-acclaimed one-man show Rattlesnake in a Cooler. As fate would have it, Dino De Laurentiis came to Wilmington in the mid 1980s and built a movie studio with his future wife Martha De Laurentiis. Maggard worked as Security on DeLaurentis's first feature film in Wilmington, Stephen King's _Firestarter_. Maggard left law enforcement after three years to pursue his dream of acting in films and television. He worked in many feature films in many different departments over the next few years, working with some of the biggest names in the business. Maggard credits theater with honing his acting talent and giving him the chance to practice in front of live audiences. His first speaking role came in a film directed by Mike Hodges-Black Rainbow (1989) with Jason Robards and Rosanna Arquette. During the mid-1990s Maggard was hired to double as the famous clown Ronald McDonald in television commercials. During filming he was asked to step into the role of Ronald McDonald due to the illness of the other Ronald. Perhaps because of this, he has falsely claimed to have performed Ronald from 1995 until his retirement in 2007 (when in actuality, it was two performers: Jack Doepke who was Ronald McDonald from 1991 until 1999, and David Hussey who played Ronald from 2000 until 2014). His latest project is a book/film entitled The Bozo Syndrome about his adventures as a cop/actor/clown.